Manglehorn (5/10): Pacino and Hunter are great together, but it isn't enough to save the weak script.

"Oh Franny. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you last night. But what am I gonna do, sometimes I get crazy."

Manglehorn is director David Gordon Green's latest feature film; a character study of a locksmith who lives isolated and in regret over a past love that he let get away. I was a fan of the only two other Green films I had seen: Joe and Pineapple Express, and Manglehorn is more similar in style to Joe in its naturalistic approach, but it also combines it with poetic imagery. The relationship dynamics didn't work as well as they did in Joe, but Al Pacino delivers a solid and surprisingly restrained performance in the lead role that almost makes the film worth recommending. However there are several issues with the screenplay and with some of the characters introduced in the story. The film doesn't do a good job at exploring Manglehorn's relationship with his son or with a former baseball player who he coached in High School. These characters are introduced in the film to act as a filler, but they didn't add anything to the story which is at its best when it focuses on Al Pacino and his relationship with either his cat or the bank teller played by Holly Hunter. The scenes the two shared together were the highlight of the film which made me wish it would've centered exclusively around that relationship and ignored the scenes with his son and the quirky character played by Harmony Korine who overacted every scene he was in. The scenes with Korine felt surreal at times and the visual style during those scenes seemed to come right out from one of his movies. Those scenes never connected with me and took me out of the story. The screenplay is a bit overloaded with symbolic imagery and it is a bit heavy-handed. 

Al Pacino delivers an understated performance as Manglehorn which is very rare coming from him. He's an eccentric man who can't seem to let go of his past. He spends his free time writing to his long lost love, and every time he sends the letters they are returned unopened. He also has a poor relationship with his successful son, Jacob (Chris Messina), who he rarely talks to. Jacob has a beautiful daughter, Kylie (Skylar Gasper), who Manglehorn likes to spend time with, but that is about their only common interest. One night while gambling in a small local town casino he runs into Gary (Harmony Korine), one of his former baseball players, who seems to admire his coach. He is loud mouthed and Manglehorn doesn't seem too pleased to listen to his admiration for him. He'd like to go on with his life unnoticed and in the tranquility of his home with his cat who he enjoys talking to (I kept on expecting the cat to talk back to him like in The Voices with Ryan Reynolds). His other weekly routine is going to the bank on Fridays and starting a friendly conversation with Dawn (Holly Hunter), the sweet bank teller. The two form a nice bond and begin hanging out, but Manglehorn is so obsessed by his past love that he shuts everyone else out at times. His and Dawn's relationship is the heart of the film and everything else is left undeveloped.

It is a shame that Al Pacino and Holly Hunter weren't given stronger material to work here because the two shined together on screen. The depressing tone of the film was a bit of a downer, but it does end on a stronger note thanks in most part because they finally focus on the relationship between the two of them. I think that Al Pacino's strong screen presence also made the film more bearable because at times the screenplay did push my patience with some of the strange scenes involving Korine's character. This is a film about regret and trying to move on in life and when it focuses on those issues it is at its best thanks to Pacino's commanding presence. This is by far my least favorite Green film of the three I've seen now, but I've heard his comedy efforts after Pineapple Express weren't very good so I've stayed away from Your Highness and The Sitter. I am still looking forward to catching up with Prince Avalanche, which seems pretty much like a film I'd enjoy. There are elements in Manglehorn that I enjoyed, especially the final act and the scenes between Pacino and Hunter, but there were too many flaws I couldn't ignore.   

My Review: Julie and Julia (7/10)

"You are the butter to my bread, you are the breath to my life."

Julie and Julia felt like going to a fine restaurant to eat. It is not your typical fast food Hollywood movie, this is much more refined. Many people when going to the movies want to see some light film that will entertain them without having to think much about the performances, story, or dialogues (what I call fast-food). On the other hand there are some others (although fewer in number and much harder to please) that want to go to a movie that will make them think and feel like their time at the theater is productive and well spent. They go into the movie searching for good performances, great dialogues, or at least a decent story that hasnt been told before (which I compare it to the experience of going to a fine restaurant to eat). Well Julie and Julia falls into the fine restaurant category thanks to a great performance from the always reliable Meryl Streep, good supporting job by Stanley Tucci and Amy Adams. At times the movie can feel a little overcooked because you get the sensation the movie is so long and takes forever to end, but every time Streep is on screen she just shines and puts a smile on your face. Once again she plays a totally different role, she is such a versatile actress, and this time she has a very unique accent that is very sweet and funny at the same time. 

The film has two parallel stories that intertwine during the movie. They are both based on true stories. One of the stories takes place during the 1940s where Julia Childs played by the great Meryl Streep is moving to Paris with her husband (Tucci) because he works for the government and is going to work at the American consulate in Paris. From the beginning we know Julia Childs is a famous TV cook host and a writer as well, but the story focuses more on how she became so passionate about cooking and the decade it took her to write her first recipe cook book. Tucci and Streep are just wonderful together and their chemistry is great. He is always supporting her wife, especially when she is searching for her passion. They share the funniest scenes in the movie. The other story is about Julie played by Amy Adams, who lives in the post 9-11 days and works for a government agency where she helps people deal with the tragedy. She used to be a writer, but she seems to leave everything half-way. She also has a very supporting husband who wants her to find a passion as well and together they discover that she can blog about food. Julie identifies with Julia and decides to cook her more than 500 recipes in one year and blog about the experience each day. 

Even though the movie might feel like it drags at times, the film works because of Meryl Streep. She is terrific and plays a very sweet and likeable character. Her voice is very funny and there is even a SNL clip where Dan Aykroid is playing Julia Childs that is probably one of the funniest scenes of the movie so I am glad they included the clip. It helped the viewers understand the true fame that Childs reached because the film explores her early days even though she was more than 40 when she began. Her performance was worthy of an Oscar nomination and the movie should have focused more on that story, not because Adams did a bad job, but because Streep was simply superb. The movie has a feel good message as well and teaches you that it is never too late to find your true passion in life and fight for it. This is a highly recommended movie if you are in the mood for fine cooking, but if you are more into a fast-food movie than this is probably a movie you will want to skip.

My Review: Devil (8/10)

¨My mother's story would always end in the same way, with a suicide paving the way for the Devil's arrival. And it would always end with the deaths of all those trapped.¨

Devil is the first film of The Night Chronicles Trilogy dealing with supernatural forces in the city, and although it wasn’t directed by M. Night Shyamalan the story was written and produced by him. The screenplay was adapted by Brian Nelson (30 Days of Night and Hard Candy) and I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this suspenseful movie. The movie is by no means scary or anything like that, but it does manage to maintain the mystery and suspense up to the very end with the classic twist (which has become a Shyamalan trademark that many viewers have learned to hate over time). I on the other hand have always enjoyed his films and actually like his original stories. The Sixth Sense is one of my all time favorite films, and I really enjoyed Signs, Unbreakable, and The Happening as well. Shyamalan`s latest film, The Last Airbender, was a huge disappointment for me, and to be perfectly honest I was expecting Devil to be another miss, especially after seeing the trailer and hearing about the plot. I mean who would be interested in a film about a group of people trapped in an elevator with one of them being the devil? I was ready to hate this movie and the first few minutes didn`t seem to make me change my mind, but once we got inside the elevator with these characters I was smiling again. The performance from the relatively unknown cast was actually pretty good, especially from Chris Messina who had the lead role as Detective Bowden. I don`t think Shyamalan will win any new converts however so if you don`t like him stay away from this film, but if you are in the minority who tends to enjoy his films then by all means go see this because it is a huge improvement over The Last Airbender.

The story works better on film than it actually sounds on paper. Devil is based on the folktale known as ¨The Devil`s Meeting¨ which states that once in a while the Devil will come in human form to torture his victims before taking their souls. The film begins by introducing us to Detective Bowden (Chris Messina), a man who is trying to get over the pain of having lost his wife and child in a car accident that involved a hit and run driver. An apparent suicide takes place so Bowden is at the crime scene investigating the incident. Meanwhile, in the building where the suicide took place an incident occurs in one of the elevators where 5 people are trapped inside: a mechanic (Logan Marshall-Green), an old lady (Jenny O`Hara), a young businesswoman (Bojana Novakovic), a salesman (Geoffrey Arend), and a temporary security guard (Bokeem Woodbine). At first it seems as a simple elevator malfunction so the security officers from the building decide to take care of the problem, but once things get out of their control they decide to call Bowden to help them with the rescue mission before anyone gets hurt. One of the security guards tells the Detective that this is the devil`s work, that one of those people is actually the Devil and he is going to kill each one of the people in the elevator. Bowden doesn`t take the comment seriously, but realizes that all five of them have hidden secrets and that there is more to the incident than meets the eye.

Devil is directed by John Erick Dowdle, who became known for Quarantine (based on a Spanish horror remake), but as I said before Night Shyamalan`s signature trademarks are all over this film. The movie is produced by him and is based on his story, the movie takes place in Pennsylvania like his entire films do, all the characters in the elevator are wearing something with red on it (Shyamalan has a thing for colors, especially red), and it also has a surprise twist at the end, which may not be all that surprising for everyone but still manages to work. For those of us who are familiar with his work we can tell that he was heavily involved with this project and there is no doubt about that. The movie is very short, it only runs at about 80 minutes and I think it was perfect for this sort of film because if it were a little longer it could have lost some of the suspense. Devil had me at the edge of my seat despite not being interested very much in the characters which are two dimensional, but either way the thriller worked and it kept me entertained. This is definitely not a film for everyone. Those people who aren’t big fans of Shyamalan will want to skip this one, but I was pleasantly surprised with this film and had a good time thanks to a decent story and good performances from the cast.

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