Introduction to MauiPeterBMovieReviews.blogspot.com
Click this link to read:
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Monday, March 10, 2025
As Time Goes By (TV, 1992-2005) [TV-PG] *****
Late in 1952, Lionel Hardcastle (Geoffrey Palmer) a young second lieutenant in training with the Middlesex Regiment meets nineteen-year-old nurse Jean Pargetter (Judi Dench). They spend three months together during which they fall in love, and then Lionel is posted to Korea. He writes to Jean immediately:
1st Battalion
The Middlesex Regiment
BFPO3
February 10th ‘53
My Darling Jean
England seems so far away
and I miss you terribly. This is
the first chance I have had to
send you my address here in
Korea.
Do write back straight away
my darling…
However, Lionel doesn’t receive a reply and he incorrectly assumes Jean wants to forget him. She never receives his letter and incorrectly assumes he wants to forget her. And so he never writes another letter to her and she never tries to find his address in Korea.
Thirty-eight years pass. Jean marries, has a daughter Judith (Moira Brooker), her husband passes away, and she opens a secretarial service Type For You. Lionel meanwhile has gone to Kenya and started a coffee plantation, married and divorced, sold the plantation and moved back to London.
He has written an autobiography about his years in Kenya, titled My Life in Kenya, however his publisher Alistair Deacon (Philip Bretherton) wants him to make some edits, so he contacts Jean’s secretarial service, and Judith, who works for her mother, becomes his secretary. He invites her out for dinner, goes to Jean’s Holland Park row house, where Judith lives with her mother, and meets Jean. They don’t recognize each other immediately but each one suspects who the other one is, and later, when they meet again in the lobby of Lionel’s hotel, it becomes clear, and they realize how young and proud and stupid they were, so long ago, when they each let the other one go.
Their story is a poignant, slightly bittersweet romantic comedy-drama about two former lovers who reunite after thirty-eight years, and try to determine if they can recapture their youthful passion and exuberance, or if it is too late. They understand that they have been given a second chance, but it is a new relationship they must create, based on their nearly forty years of life experience apart, and their bittersweet regrets of the years they missed. Their story echoes the wish many of us have later in life, that we could go back and experience again the passion and possessiveness of those first weeks and months of a love affair.
The cast is uniformly excellent, and the writing has the perfect blend of the comedy that finds itself in a variety of domestic and work-related situations, and the drama that accompanies the search for love, not only for Jean and Lionel, but for her daughter Judith, for his publisher Alistair, and for Sandy (Jenny Funnell) who begins as a young employee at the secretarial service and becomes a live-in member of the Pargetter-Hardcastle family, and, really, a second daughter to Jean and Lionel.
Labels: comedy, drama, romance, rom-com-faves
IMDb 83/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=tbd, viewers=tbd)
DVD
britbox
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
The Last Rifleman (2024) [PG13] ****
A film review by Brian Orndorf for blu-ray.com on Nov. 6, 2024.
Artie (Pierce Brosnan) is a 92-year-old man living in a senior care center, trying to remain attentive to his wife, Maggie (Stella McCusker), who’s fighting dementia. When Maggie passes away, Artie faces a host of memories, including time with his wife and Charlie, a dear friend from long ago. Discovering special letters in Maggie’s belongings, Artie decides to participate in an upcoming D-Day memorial service, requiring some quick thinking to get past the staff. Now out in the open world, Artie has to find his way to France, embarking on a series of travel adventures where he meets various people looking to help the military veteran reach his final destination. Juliette (Clemence Poesy) is part of this support chain, as the French mother is also dealing with troubles, responding to the older man’s quest to confront his past.
Artie can’t escape the horrors of war. It invades his dreams, returning to a time of confusion and tremendous fear in the British Army, surrounded by elements of violence as a new soldier. He’s no longer a young man, snapped back to his reality as a senior citizen facing an extensive list of medical needs, including management of his diabetes. Artie tries to be there for Maggie, comforting his wife of 68 years, but she remains in a fog, calling for Charlie when her husband hopes to reach some part of her mind. Maggie’s death inspires Artie’s actions in The Last Rifleman, left on his own to face issues rooted in his past, using the D-Day gathering to confront mistakes that aren’t immediately understood in the screenplay by Kevin Fitzpatrick. In fact, it takes a long time to reach a confrontation, with most of The Last Rifleman devoted to the journey to Normandy.
Travel isn’t easy for Artie, who’s frail but determined to reach his destination. Setbacks are common, as the character manages time on a train, a bus, and a truck, gradually making his way into France. The Last Rifleman details interactions along the way, including a young man who bonds with Artie over a shared love for composer Ennio Morricone. A truck driver is attentive to Artie’s diabetic behavior, and a longer stretch of screen time is devoted to Juliette, a Frenchwoman traveling home with her children. She helps Artie get past an expired passport and enter France, and the pair use their day together for confessional purposes, as the mother is processing medical issues. The Last Rifleman also explores life at the senior care center, where resident Tom (Ian McElhinney) contacts journalist Tony (Desmond Eastwood), informing the writer about Artie’s amazing mission, which soon becomes news across the country.
The Great Escaper was interested in comedic experiences. The Last Rifleman remains a softer, melancholy film, following Artie as he gets closer to the source of his anguish, also meeting an American soldier (the late John Amos, in his final role) who puts their shared service into perspective. There are more encounters to come for Artie, who eventually hitches a ride alongside ex-Nazis also trying to find sense in the war, making the philosophical line, living with ghosts, the dominant mood of the picture. The feature isn’t a tear-jerker, but something deeper when handling the true costs of combat and the stain of horrible mistakes. Brosnan gives a fine performance to help director Terry Loane, playing the strain of aging and the slow leak of communication as Artie starts to discuss his past with others. It’s the best work he’s done in some time, getting The Last Rifleman to a place of mournful reflection befitting an unusual (and partially true) story of closure. [Orndorfer's rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars]
Labels: drama, war, WWII
IMDb 66/100
MetaScore (critics=tbd, viewers=tbd)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=62, viewers=86)
Brian Orndorfer review
Sunday, February 2, 2025
What Happens Later (2023) [R] ***
A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net on Nov. 4, 2023.
What Happens Later represents Meg Ryan’s minimal-fanfare return to the genre that made her a star and that resulted in one of the most fertile female/female writer/actor partnerships in the history of filmmaking. With Nora Ephron providing the words, Ryan made her three classic rom-coms – When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail – during a 10-year period toward the end of the last century. Then, weary of typecasting, she opted for a starring role in the racy In the Cut, effectively ending her reign as America’s Sweetheart. It has been eight years since she last made a movie and double that since she was a regular fixture on the big screen. What Happens Later is an attempt not to reignite the rom-com, which has become a moribund genre trapped on streaming TV, but to argue that Ryan can still be a player some 25 years after she turned her back on it.
Although What Happens Later has fun gently referencing Ryan’s past filmography, it doesn’t overdo it. For example, her age-appropriate co-star (he’s 63, she’s on the cusp of 62 at the time of the movie’s release) is David Duchovny not Tom Hanks or Billy Crystal. Dour Duchovny, the ex-X Files star who spent an awful lot of time wallowing in the debauchery of Californication, is a nice counterpoint to the bubbly Ryan, who remains chipper as she transitions out of middle age. There is some chemistry between them but it comes in fits and starts and doesn’t start giving off any heat until late in the proceedings. There’s a lot of magic realism (notably in the form of an omniscient airport announcer who functions as a Greek Chorus) and Ryan’s character embraces it while Duchovny is skeptical (a flip from The X-Files where he was the believer).
The narrative unspools in the emptiest regional airport in the world during the height of a snowstorm that grounds most of the planes and chases all the passengers away. Past lovers Willa (Ryan) and Bill (Duchovny) haven’t seen each other in 25 years, when he walked out on her, but they are destined not only to reconnect but to work through a lot of ugly stuff as the storm rages outside. Now, they’re going in different directions – he’s a stockbroker headed to Austin and she’s a “wellness practitioner” en route to Boston. For him, it’s a trip. For her, it’s a journey. This is a Before Sunrise sojourn with a Before Midnight tone.
Although Ryan (who directed and co-wrote the screenplay) maintains a superficial rom-com veneer, there are darker issues at play. This isn’t all hearts and flowers, although it ends with one of the former. Most lighthearted romances are forward-looking, with the characters gazing into the future as the end credits arrive. What Happens Later, as the title implies, is more about looking to the past and confronting regrets. Life and love have a different taste when there are more years behind than ahead.
The film’s origins as a stage play (“Shooting Star” by Steven Dietz) are evident. There are no flashbacks, much of the action transpires in real time, there is only a single setting (the airport), and 85% of the film is dialogue. We learn the characters’ backstory through their conversations and come to understand that their breakup was in large part due to miscommunications. What Happens Later neither offers nor promises a “happily ever after” ending. And, although there are instances when the writing crackles and pops, it lacks the zing that Nora Ephron brought to Ryan’s best-known rom-coms. (The movie is dedicated to her.)
There are things that don’t work. The magical realism aspect is overdone. Having the airport announcer (voice provided by “Hal Liggett,” a pseudonym for an actor who is thus far uncredited) interfering in the action is an annoying contrivance and there are times when Willa’s hippie persona borders on a caricature. As if believing the material to be too dry, Ryan tries too hard to make it quirky and those instances, in contrast to the more grounded, believable moments, are when What Happens Later sputters.
Although nostalgia will undoubtedly be a reason for many viewers to give this movie a try, it’s only passingly similar to Ryan’s previous ventures into the genre. This is a more mature project, designed almost exclusively for a slice of older viewers. Like most rom-coms, it is comfort food although it lacks the fantasy element associated with characters who are less seasoned. [Berardinelli's rating: 3 stars out of 4]
Labels: comedy, romance
Here (2024) [PG-13] ***
A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net on Nov. 1, 2024.
For a movie like Here, which eschews the norms of narrative filmmaking in favor of something experimental, the first question to ask is whether the story, stripped bare of the director’s approach, is worth telling. The second question is whether the decision to approach the movie in a nontraditional fashion adds anything to the production. Providing an answer to the first question is more difficult than the second. At its heart, Here is a fairly straightforward melodrama and its strength comes from the accessibility and relatability of the characters and their circumstances. Most of us will have known (or been) these people at various times during our lives. Certain moments have a poignancy that comes from the connections formed between on-screen characters and those watching in the audience. But the biggest problems with Here are the extraneous plot elements that bog down the basic story (in order to advance a theme about impermanence), the ill-advised chronological dysfunction favored by director Robert Zemeckis, and the awkward, distracting use of frames to provide transitions. Although these things don’t destroy the film, they reduce its overall impact and emotional resonance. It’s difficult (if not impossible) to become immersed in a movie when the director is constantly reminding us that it is a movie.
Berardinelli's full film review (2.5 stars out of 4)
Labels: drama, Tom Hanks
IMDb 63/100
MetaScore (critics=39, viewers=48)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=44, viewers=68)
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) [PG-13] ****
A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net
It's vaguely disconcerting to admit that, less than 24 hours after seeing Under the Tuscan Sun, the thing I remember most clearly about it is neither the characters nor the situations, but the photography. This is a beautifully shot motion picture, and there's no doubt that the lush scenery upstages the actors. The real star of Under the Tuscan Sun isn't Diane Lane, but the Italian countryside, with its rich, varied hues, as filtered through the lenses of cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson. So, if you're looking for pretty, postcard-like settings, this movie offers plenty of them. If the narrative is more of a concern, you may find this film lacking.
The movie is freely adapted by director/screenwriter Audrey Wells from Frances Mayes' book of the same name. However, because the source material is essentially a travelogue, Wells reworked the material to provide a structured narrative. The main thread of the story, while not original, is interesting enough. Unfortunately, Wells didn't think this was sufficient, so she added a number of cliched, poorly developed, uninteresting subplots to highlight various quirky secondary characters. And, of course, there's the obligatory rushed, optimistic ending which is as false as an old man's dentures.
Diane Lane, elevated to the level of movie star as a result of her Oscar nomination for Unfaithful, headlines the film as Frances Mayes, a newly divorced writer/book critic who is having a hard time dealing with the breakup of her marriage. Her concerned best friend, Patti (Sandra Oh), suggests that she spend some time out of the country, and buys for her a plane ticket to Italy. Once there, Frances decides she doesn't want to return to the United States, and plunges all of her available capital into a crumbling Tuscan villa. As she's fixing it up with the help of some immigrant Polish workers, she meets her neighbors and begins her search for a new romance.
The part of the movie that centers on Frances' rebirth in Italy (a process that parallels the revitalization of her 300-year old home) is Under the Tuscan Sun's most compelling aspect. As I said, it's not terribly original, but it is well-done. Frances' obligatory romance with Marcello (Raoul Bova) seems to have been included primarily to satisfy those who are looking for something more than a woman trying to figure out how to get her plumbing to work. The subplots vary from unnecessary to annoying. Instead of enhancing the film by adding color and depth, they are so poorly realized that they detract by stealing away time that could have been used to probe deeper into Frances' character. She's the only interesting individual in this movie, and demoting her to the level of match-maker and problem-solver during the film's second half causes the story to lose focus and momentum. Does anyone really care about the self-absorbed English actress Katherine (Lindsay Duncan) who constantly quotes Federico Fellini? Or the star-crossed lovers who don't speak the same language and can't marry because her parents don't like him? Or the pregnant friend who decides to have her baby in Tuscany after she is abandoned by her lesbian partner?
The nice thing about Lane's performance is that there's a natural, unforced quality to it. This has always been the actress' trademark, and it turns out to be one of Under the Tuscan Sun's strengths, at least for as long as Wells keeps Frances at the undisputed center of events. Of the supporting actors, only two are worth mentioning. Sandra Oh brings a nice, cynical edge to the proceedings. Oh makes Patti a bluntly outspoken individual who shows an inner core of vulnerability. Meanwhile, Raoul Bova is suitably rugged and handsome as Marcello, the first Italian guy with whom Frances decides she wants to do more than flirt.
I am of the firm opinion that the term chick flick (which manifestly applies to this film) should not automatically disqualify men from enjoying the production or offering an opinion about it. The best entries into this genre, such as Fried Green Tomatoes, can pluck at the heartstrings of males and females. Unfortunately, Under the Tuscan Sun, despite starting out strong, never gets to a level where it can be considered universally appealing. It's a little disappointing to watch a strong character arc crumble, but that's the price of a lost focus. Under the Tuscan Sun isn't special enough to warrant a trip to the local multiplex unless you're in desperate need of an antidote to the lingering aftereffects of this past summer's testosterone overdose. In such a case, viewing this movie is understandable, if not entirely worthwhile. [Berardinelli's rating: 2.5 out of 4 stars = 62.5%
Labels: comedy, cross-cultural, Diane Lane, drama, romance
IMDb 67/100
MetaScore (critics=52, viewers=73)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=62, viewers=80)
Blu-ray
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
A Rainy Day in New York (2019) [PG-13] ***
A
film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net on Oct. 7, 2020.
Watching A Rainy Day in New York, it’s easy to become nostalgic about Allen’s classics (like Manhattan and Annie Hall) an even a few of his not-so-classics (like Celebrity) because this new movie references those (and others) and, in the process, reminds us how much better the director once was than what he is now. The movie is labeled a comedy but it’s only occasionally witty and rarely (if ever) laugh-aloud funny. The filmmaker’s bitterness about star culture is evident in nearly every scene as is his distaste for everything to do with the paparazzi and celebrity worship.
The narrative takes two upstate New York university students, lovers Gatsby (Timothee Chalamet) and Ashleigh (Elle Fanning), and brings them into the city when she scores an interview with reclusive, iconoclast director Roland Pollard (Liev Schreiber). Raised in Tucson, Arizona, Ashleigh has little experience with big cities and Gatsby, who has just won big at the poker table, is anxious to turn the weekend into a romantic getaway. (He spends considerable money on their hotel accommodations.) But circumstances separate them. Pollard is entranced with Ashleigh (at one point calling her his new muse) and various other celebrated film-types are drawn to her, including legendary writer Ted Davidoff (Jude Law) and international mega-hunk Francisco Vega (Diego Luna). Meanwhile, a dejected Gatsby consorts with Chan (Selena Gomez), the younger sister of an ex-flame, gets into a poker game, and brings a hooker (Kelly Rohrbach) to an upscale party being hosted by his mother (Cherry Jones).
One problem with many of Allen’s post-2000 films is his tendency to write dialogue that would sound natural only if he spoke it. As a result, the male stars of his films – in this case, Timothee Chalamet – are often put into the odd position of mimicking a younger Allen in order to be able to get the cadence and mannerisms right. (The strangest example of this was Kenneth Branagh in Celebrity – something I called an odd and disconcerting experience.) Not to be outdone, Elle Fanning gives a truly horrible imitation of a twenty-something Diane Keaton. There are some nice supporting performances – Liev Schreiber, Jude Law, Selena Gomez, and Cherry Jones – but the two leads are so bad that it hardly matters.
As is Allen’s wont when setting his films, this is a gauzy, fanciful New York that, if it ever existed, was never accessible to anyone without extraordinary wealth and/or privilege. This backdrop has served Allen well in many of his better excursions but it feels dated and out-of-touch in A Rainy Day in New York. Plus, the production values are questionable. At times during the rain, the sun can be seen shining. Presumably Allen lacked the funding to be able to fix this in post-production, or he didn’t care enough to do so. [Berardinelli’s rating: 2 stars out of 4 = 50%]
Labels: comedy, romance
IMDb 65/100
MetaScore (critics=38, viewers=75)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=43, viewers=66)
Blu-ray
James Berardinelli’s review
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)