Miss You Already (7/10): Girl Power!

“You kind of look like a superhero.”

Catherine Hardwicke may not be a director who has consistently delivered strong work, but I tend to enjoy her more personal and female centered films. Many probably know her for her direction in the first Twilight film, which I actually enjoyed quite a bit despite the critical hate. Red Riding Hood I can agree with everyone was a huge failure, but her debut film, Thirteen, still remains one of her best films to date. I found some similarities between that film and Miss You Already, Hardwicke's latest movie. Although Thirteen centered on two young teenagers, it was basically a movie about female characters. In Miss  You Already the characters are in their late 30’s but the film also centers on a strong female friendship. It is not every day you get to see a film where the two protagonists are females and both the director and the screenplay writer are also women. The film has a voice of its own and despite being melodramatic at times it does feel authentic. It deserves to be seen. 

I know that there will be many comparisons between this film and The Fault in Our Stars because it centers on a character battling with cancer, but this film deals with the subject matter in a much more authentic tone. It is not aimed towards teens by introducing a charismatic character, but it tries to deal with the subject matter in an honest way by showing how cancer affects not only the individual but the family and friends around them. The friendship between Drew Barrymore’s Jess and Toni Collette’s Milly is at center and we get to see how this new struggle alters the course of their own personal family lives. The men playing their husbands (Dominic Cooper and Paddy Considine) are relegated because this is a film centering on female characters, but they each add emotional value to the film. I enjoyed the family dynamics here and was touched by the more emotional moments. I never felt them manipulative because the film has a voice of its own. Hardwicke seems to be in a much more comfortable position when she centers on dramatic stories and stays away from science fiction.

The performances from both Collette and Barrymore are solid and I believe they are the reason why the film works as well as it does. Collette especially gets to shine since she has some of the most difficult and emotional scenes in the movie, but Barrymore knows how to stand her ground and the chemistry between both actresses was solid. Cooper and Considine also get to have their moments although they don’t get much screen time. The cast is great and the film benefits from their charismatic performances. Miss You Already might not be an original or groundbreaking film, but it is a sincere family drama that manages to deliver authentic emotions. 

My Review: Donnie Darko (5/10)

¨28 days... 6 hours... 42 minutes... 12 seconds. That... is when the world... will end.¨

Donnie Darko is Richard Kelly`s first feature film and considered by many to be by far his best work. This dark and mysterious movie has reached cult status among many film lovers thanks to its original and eerie premise. I on the other hand, just recently watched it and didn’t enjoy the movie all that much. This isn’t my first Kelly film, since I saw The Box a few years back and really hated that movie so I was hoping Donnie Darko would be a lot better. It was better thanks to the performance from Jake Gyllenhaal and the atmosphere set up by Kelly, but it still didn’t work for me and once again I was disappointed with the ending of the film. Richard Kelly also wrote the original screenplay for Donnie Darko and at times the movie seemed to be heading into very interesting territories, but it just never managed to stay that way and ended up drifting everywhere. Many things that happened didn’t make much sense for me, but that is the way science fiction films work, some love it while others hate it and consider the events taking place to be impossible. For a movie dealing with time travel and such I think Back to the Future is the one to be put on the pedestal. Too many elements in Donnie Darko are just pointless in my opinion, but those elements are perhaps why many people consider this film to be a masterpiece. Donnie Darko is a divisive movie which some will love and others hate. You will just have to watch it and make your own judgment.

In the beginning of the movie we are introduced to a young and troubled teen named Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) who wakes up in the middle of nowhere one morning and drives his bike home. Donnie lives with his parents Eddie (Holmes Osborne) and Rose (Mary McDonnell) and two sisters Elizabeth (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Samantha (Daveigh Chase). His family is worried about his behavior and he is sort of the outcast in class as well. He has therapy sessions with Dr. Lillian Thurman (Katharine Ross) and confesses to have an imaginary friend named Frank who is dressed up as a demon faced bunny. Frank has told Donnie that the world will end in 28 days and he also makes him commit a series of vandal acts. Dr. Thurman is afraid that Donnie is suffering from severe psychotic disorder. One morning a jet engine falls from the sky right into Donnie`s room, but Donnie was saved because he had slept walk to a golf course that night following Frank`s instructions. Donnie believes that Frank is some sort of messenger from the future and begins to ask question to his teachers in school about time travel. He also begins to date a new classmate named Gretchen (Jena Malone) who has also gone through a very dark past. As the apocalyptic date approaches, Donnie tries to find a way to change things.

This dark science fiction drama has a lot of missing pieces that the audience is forced to put together by using their imagination (unless you watch the director`s cut which is a lot more explanatory). The film doesn’t seem to follow similar premises from other movies, it is original and sometimes it feels like nothing really is happening that is connected with other events. That is the feeling I got with Donnie Darko, that it was a very disconnected film and hard to encapsulate at times. It`s as if the movie doesn’t know what it really wants to be. The characters aren`t really interesting either, the only true character that is given depth in this film is Donnie Darko and his behavior is really bizarre at times. Gyllenhaal`s performance was great, but that is the only thing I enjoyed about this movie. Kelly has had a difficult time trying to follow up his work from this film since his next two films have failed and not reached the same cult status as this movie did. Donnie Darko could have been a masterpiece if Kelly would have found a way to piece everything together at the end, but it left me with a sour taste.

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My Review: Going the Distance (5/10)

¨A comedy about meeting each other halfway. ¨

Oscar nominated documentary director Nanette Burstein brings us ¨Going the Distance¨, which marks the first time she directs a fictional film. It`s a rom/com that deals with long distance relationships and the screenplay was written by first time screenplay writer Geoff LaTulippe. Justin Long and Drew Barrymore play the two main characters who begin a no strings attached relationship, but end up falling in love despite the fact that Drew`s character, Erin, is moving from New York to San Francisco. Justin Long is Garrett, a guy who works in New York for a record label and who isn`t looking for a serious relationship with Erin because he knows she is going to leave soon, but their friendship grows and love blossoms. Both decide they can`t let such a good thing end and decide to continue their relationship despite the distance. Justin and Erin try to make the relationship work, but they face several difficult situations that most people who have had long distance relationships can identify with. The movie mixes comedy with romance and at the same time it has several situations we can identify with. Some of the secondary characters enhance the comedy, such as Christina Applegate who plays Erin`s married sister who is very uptight and overprotective. Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis play Dan and Box, Garrett`s best friends who have some of the funniest lines in the movie. The chemistry between Barrymore and Long is good and the screenplay has several funny moments, but at the end of the film you realize you have already seen this movie before since it ends up being pretty predictable. This is one of those movies that had potential to be so much better, but at the end it stuck with Hollywood`s predictable rom-com formula. You might have an enjoyable movie going experience with Going the Distance, but it is far from memorable and by the end of the day you will have forgotten all about it. For people who have gone through long distance relationships and its struggles, then they may feel drawn towards it and identify with some of the things happening, but as a comedy I was expecting a little more.

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My Review: Everybody`s Fine (6/10)

¨If you would ask me I would have to say in all honesty, everybody`s fine. Everybody`s fine.¨

Kirk Jones (who also directed Nanny McPhee and Waking Ned Divine) directs this italian remake from the 90`s called Stanno Tutti Bene. He also is given credit for adapting the original screenplay to suit this american version better. The film works because De Niro gives a pretty powerful performance and makes you forget all the cliches the film has. Yes, it is very formulaic and we know every single kid will have something to hide from his father, they all have a problem, and they all are withholding information from him. The journey De Niro`s character is making will be revealing and teach him some lessons which he never learned in his 60 years, but he will now in these few days. Everybody`s Fine follows all those formulas which we have grown used to in Hollywood films, but thanks to some interesting performances the movie is worth your time. It is a dramedy, a movie that likes to play with our emotions, but it still is worth checking out. The weakest part of the movie is the distance that De Niro`s character has with his children. It is hard to believe sometimes that this is actually a family and I think the director exagerated a bit with the coldness and distance between them, and it all just ties up too neatly at the end.

Frank Goode (Robert De Niro) is a widower, who is planning on having his four children for dinner on the weekend. After making plans for preparing a nice meal he receives calls from each one saying that they won`t be able to make it. Frank hasn`t seen his kids since their mother`s funeral and he realizes she was the one that maintained the family together, so he decides to go give them a surprise visit each. Frank has a lung condition and his doctor recommends him to stay at home and not travel, but he decides to go anyway across the different states on train and bus. His first stop is New York where he plans on visiting David (Austin Lysy), an artist. He is not at his apartment and Frank waits for an entire day without being able to reach him, although he is glad to see one of his paintings at a gallery near his apartment. Frank decides to move on and visit his daughter Amy (Kate Beckinsale) in Chicago. She is a succesful ad executive and has a nice home she shares with her husband and son. Frank then travels to Denver the next day because she is busy and visits Robert (Sam Rockwell), who plays the percussion for the orchestra. Frank`s last trip is to Las Vegas where he meets up with Rosie (Drew Barrymore), a succesful profesional dancer. Frank realizes that his children have all been lieing to him and that they are not all fine, but he wonders why they can`t trust him and figures it is because he pushed his kids too hard. 

Robert De Niro gives one of his best performances in years, and  it was good to see him in this kind of role. Drew Barrymore also gives a great performance and she seemed the closest with her father, and perhaps the only one who really had chemistry with him. It was hard to beleive his relationship with his other children, especially with Kate Beckinsale`s character who was too distant. Sam Rockwell gives a good performance, he is a great actor, but he was much better in Moon. The movie has a slow start, but after a while you begin to get involved in the story and wonder what the kids are hiding. Frank has worked hard all his life making telephone cables in order to give his kids a good education and has really pushed them, perhaps a bit too much. Ironically that communication media is not used anymore by his children who all use wireless cellphones, and it represents the communication between them that has been broken over the years. I think that the main problem the film has is that it tries to resolve everything at the end, and it just doesn`t work that well. However, the story is well told and if you are into these emotional movies then you will probably enjoy this one because it has some good performances and is a very touching movie. The problem I had with it was that it was too formulaic, but still worth it in my opinion.