<Film Capsules>

These are the old Film Capsules. We hope you will enjoy them.

 

FILM CAPSULES, May 2009

 

Star Trek

Rated PG. Proverbs 2:21-22
This prequel to the long Star Trek series begins with a bang. A Star Fleet ship is under attack by a huge, strange shaped vessel captained by a Romulan renegade named Nero, who is bent on avenging the destruction of his planet. Overwhelmed by superior firepower, Captain George Kirk orders his ship to be abandoned. Among the evacuees is his wife Winona, about to give birth (don't ask why she is aboard). Captain Kirk, seeing that the only way to keep Nero at bay, thus allowing the rest of the crew to escape, is to stay with the ship and ram the attacker, keeps in radio touch with his wife to the last moment of impact. The baby boy emerges, they express their love, agree on the name of James--James Tiberius Kirk--and say farewell. Thus is born the great hero of the Star Fleet, half-orphaned, and, as we see subsequently, a hellion of a kid raised in Iowa. The film also provides a glimpse of the young Spock, a ridiculed outsider on Vulcan because his ambassador father had married an Earth woman. Vulcans might be ultra-rational, but they can also be subject to prejudice. Jump ahead in time to the Academy where, to our surprise, Spock and Kirk begin their relationship as enemies. Before long they are aboard the brand new Enterprise with the Vulcan as Captain, at odds over what to do about Nero and his immense ship that has just destroyed the planet Vulcan. Aboard also are the younger versions of the crew we have come to love, the young actors being wonderfully matched to their older characters. There is the usual scientific gobbledygook necessary for this genre (including the beginning of what will become the beloved phrase "Beam me up, Scotty"), wonderful special effects, and best of all, the beginning of the relationships that have always been at the heart of the series. A special crowd pleaser is the appearance of Leonard Nimoy as Spock, at  the ripe age of 129 Earth years, who has somehow come from the future and speaking to the young Kirk in an ice cave. Director J.J. Abrams and his crew have honored the original, producing what should be a box office winner. Director J.J. Abrams and his crew have honored the original, producing what should be a box office winner

 

The Soloist

Rated R. Proverbs 17:17
This is another film based on a true story of a journalist trying to help a down and out man. Newspaper columnist Steve Lopez is curious when he stops beneath an L.A. Freeway underpass to listen to a man engrossed in playing a two-stringed violin. It is a beautiful Beethoven piece, and when the player mentions that he has studied at Julliard, Lopez senses a story. It is indeed a Big Story, the homeless man being Nathaniel Ayers who dropped out of school when his mental illness overwhelmed him. In response to Steve’s story readers send in instruments, and Nathaniel is able to play his first love, a cello. As their friendship develops, Steve works with a church shelter counselor, Nathaniel’s sister who flies in from their hometown of Cleveland, and with various members of the L.A. Philharmonic to help Nathaniel reconnect with the world. However, this does not proceed according to the usual Hollywood formula, the filmmakers refusing to sugar coat Nathaniel’s illness. The film is a wonderful, only slightly fictionalized, tale of friendship, love, and fighting the good fight against life’s cruel slings and arrows. The church counselor comes off as a very compassionate and perceptive care-giver.

Paris 36 (French with English subtitles)

Rated PG-13. Proverbs 6:11-19
Writer-director Christophe Barratier delightful work could be seen as the ultimate “let’s save the day by putting on a show” film. Set in a working class district of Paris in 1936, hence its title, it chronicles the efforts of an assorted group of folk to save a decrepit music hall from being torn down by the ruthless man who heads the local Fascist movement. One of the characters is a talented boy who clandestinely keeps his manager father afloat financially after the theater is first closed and their mother-wife leaves with another man. When the authorities catch the boy playing his accordion with another performer at cafes, the out-of-work father loses custody of the boy and the mother cuts off all contact between the two. When the former performers and stage employees put on their Big Show to raise money for the purchase of the theater, matters turn out very differently from the old Hollywood formula, though the new girl hired to introduce the acts does turn out to be a singing sensation. There is also an underlying theme of anti-Semitism and the rebirth of one of the performers who has succumbed to it. Filled with tuneful songs and humorous moments, this is well worth the trip up to the Esquire to catch it.

Earth

Rated G. Psalm 24:1-2
If you enjoyed the old Disney “True Life Adventures” such as The Living Desert, you will love this journey around our planet and through the seasons. The producers have taken some of the best sequences from the BBC and Discovery Channel series “Planet Earth” and woven them into a fascinating film, whose beauty at times will fill you with a sense of awe. The struggle of a mother polar bear and her two cubs to find food cuts back and forth with that of a male polar bear, supposedly the “father,” which vainly tries to stay alive when food becomes both scarce and difficult to kill when it does find it. The 3000 mile journey of a mother humpback whale and her calf; a herd of elephants crossing a desert to find water; these and other vignettes of animals make us aware of how vast and varied are the animals of our world, and also how some of these are threatened by our pollution.

On DVD: The Tale of Despereaux

Rated G. Colossians 3:13.
Although named after a tiny nonconformist mouse with Dumb0sized ears that wants to become a knight, several other lives are intertwined in this twist on the old fairy tale genre —that of Roscuro, a rat that is banished when he falls into the Queen’s soup; a Princess grieving over the death of her mother, caused by the shock of seeing a rat in her soup; and a pug-nosed peasant maid who dreams of leaving her pigs and servant chores and becoming a princess. Little Despereaux is the bane of his parents and teachers because he is unafraid of cats; loves to read books rather than to eat their paper and glue; and worst of all, because he enters into a conversation with a human, the Princess. For all of this he is banished from the mouse section of the castle into a deep, deep shaft, at the bottom of which is rat territory. How he teams up with Roscuro and overcomes all obstacles so that he can achieve his dream of becoming a knight makes for an amusing and inspiring tale. Parents and grandparents could use this DVD, with some funny games and activities, to bond with a child and talk together about some important issues

 

FILM CAPSULES, April 2009

 

Crossing Over

Rated R. Deut 10:17-19 & Matt 25:42-45
Despite its star Harrison Ford, who plays a compassionate U.S. Immigration agent, writer-director Wayne Kramer’s film has not received the attention it deserves. A bit like Traffic and Crash, in that it weaves together the troubled stories of a number of persons involved with illegal immigration, the film offers church groups a good opportunity for discussing this controversial issue. The illegal immigrants are a varied lot—not just from South of the Border lands, but also Bangladesh, Iran, Korea, Australia, and Great Britain. Then, on the other side of the issue, are Max (Ford), a law enforcer who sympathizes with those whom he must arrest; a corrupt Green Card agent who exploits a woman for sexual favors; and an immigration attorney who tries to help those caught in the bewildering maze of laws, which too often are unfair. There is also Hamid, Max’s American-Iranian partner with his own family problems, who in an armed confrontation bestows mercy upon a teenager on the verge of destroying his own life as well as that of the hostage he is holding. Filled with grace amidst a world of harsh law, this is a flawed yet powerful glimpse of a world few of us have experienced.

I Love You, Man

Rated R. 1 Sam 1:1-3
In a society in which males have long been defined by their toughness and reticence in expressing their emotions (can you imagine the Duke getting down from his horse and hugging a cowboy as he says, “I love you, man”?), this film is evidence of a major change in our society. When Peter finally proposes to Zooey, both become aware that he has no close male friend whom he can ask to be Best Man. There follows a funny , and sometimes poignant, search for a guy with whom he can bond. None of the “candidates” measure up—this sequence being like those arranged dates in movies wherein a man or woman is searching for a mate.. Then at an open house hosted by Peter (he is a real-estate agent) he meets Sydney, a guy who has come merely for the free food, and soon the two are seeing more of each other than Peter does his bride-to-be.. Sydney is still a boy-child in many ways, yet good for Peter, as is Peter for him. Complications, of course, arise, and there is a moving moment of grace at the climax of the film. Unfortunately the frank sexual talk will make this a risky choice for a church group to view and discuss.

Sunshine Cleaning

Rated R.. Luke 6:37-38; Ephesians 4:26
Although not as good as I Have Loved You So Long, this dark comedy also focusing on two sisters is well worth the price of admission. The film has reminded some critics of Little Miss Sunshine, partly due to Alan Arkin again playing a quirky grandfather mentoring in a dubious fashion his grandchild (a boy this time), but I was reminded more of the old tale of “The Ant and the Grasshopper.” Older sister Rose is a single mother desperately needing money to pay for the private schooling that her 7 year-old son needs because he is always in trouble at his public school. Rose works hard as a house cleaner, whereas younger sister Norah still lives with their dad and parties most of the time. When Rose’s paramour Mac, a married cop who was her high school sweetheart and father of her son, suggests that she could make a lot more money cleaning up after crime scenes, Rose almost forces her reluctant sister to join her in a venture that does indeed turn out to be profitable, which she names “Sunshine Cleaning.” But given Norah’s unreliability, will it last, and—? Director Christine Jeffs. and screenwriter Megan Holly provide us with a brief excursion into the underbelly of society that is well worth the trip—and at the same time, especially in a secular “prayer” and a reconciliation scene, unknowingly shed some light on the two Scripture passages listed above.

The Class

Rated R.. Proverbs 1:1-5; 16:16; 22:6
When director Laurent Canteta set out to adapt to the screen the best-selling autobiographical novel by teacher Francois Begaudeau, he cast the author himself as the movie teacher, and then sought non-actor youth as the students. The result, after months of improvisational rehearsals, is a film that seems like a documentary, with the interchange between teacher and students, sometimes friendly, often hostile, filled with electric energy. In the many scenes in which the teachers exchange views and tales we see that they all care for their students, who, living in Paris’s inner-city, are a multiethnic lot. François (Begaudeau) Marin teaches French in a breezy, friendly way, joking with the students at times, and then, when his authority is questioned, digging in his heels to say that such academic details as the passive pluperfect subjunctive is important, regardless of how irrelevant it seems to his class. This is definitely not Freedom Writers, in that at one point the class challenges their teacher’s unconscious racist assumption, and practically rebel when in a fit of exasperation he insults two girls. This is a good film for all who are interested in education, as well as culture clash, to watch and discuss, the director serving as reporter, siding with neither teacher nor his often unruly charges.

Battle for Terra

Rated PG. Deut 1:21; Romans 12:18-21 (Prov 25:21-23)
As a long-time sci-fi reader I enjoyed the film’s reversal of the invasion from outer space genre. This time it is the humans who are the terror from outer space when the survivors of a nuclear war that destroyed their old home come upon a new planet which they name Terra. (This is a little similar to the groundbreaking film of the early 1950s, The Day the Earth Stood Still.) The alien characters are attractive tad pole-like creatures, Marla being a female Luke Skywalker (especially in the early scenes in which she leads her more cautious friend in flying into dangerous places as they explore the region around their city. She saves the life of a human officer who had led a flight of fighters that attacked her city, which leads to all kinds of adventures before reconciliation can take place. Several times one of the characters says, in the face of violence, “There must be an alternative.” This film, with its gorgeous animation, should appeal to both children and adults, especially the latter concerned with peacemaking issues.

 

Film Capsules March 2009

 

Watchmen

Rated R. Psalm 20:7-8 & Matthew 4:8-10
Based on a super hero graphic novel that explores the vulnerabilities of the men and women behind the masks, this film might be confusing at times—at least it was for this writer, who had not read the original. The story is set in an alternate universe: it is 1985, and Richard Nixon is in his third term. (Talk about a scary thought!) The Cold War is close to breaking out into a hot one, with nuclear scientists setting the Doomsday Clock at 5 minutes to Midnight. The Superheroes once known collectively in the 1940s as The Minute Men (yes, there are women in the group, too) have been forced by the government to retire because of public fear, expressed in a graffiti, “Who is watching the Watchmen?” Only one of them has retained his super strength, Dr. Manhattan, who now works for the government. When one of the superheroes is murdered, Rorschach brings his fellow Watchmen out of retirement so that they can track down the killer who he thinks is out to assassinate all of them. This would be a good film to discuss with young adults and youth such issues as power and its use; violence and vigilantism.

Knowing

Rated PG-13. Luke 3:9, 16-18
Nicolas Cage seems to be the man to go to in these kind of action thrillers. This time he is MIT Professor Astrophysicist John Koestler, son of a pastor from whom he is estranged after he lost his faith due to his wife’s death. John’s son Caleb is a student at a middle school where a time capsule from 1959 is being opened. The children back then had been asked to draw pictures of what they thought the world would be like in 50 years. One strange little girl named Lucinda instead of drawing filled her large page with a series of numbers. Of course, Caleb receives hers, and when John looks it over, he lays it aside. By accident, however, he discovers that some of the sets of numbers are the dates and number of casualties of all the major catastrophes in the past 50 years. Looking up the daughter of Lucinda, who is also a single parent, but with a daughter, John comes to believe that his son was chosen by unknown powers to receive the paper so that his father could prevent future catastrophes—and believe me, the last one is a spectacular one! Interesting film to compare biblical views of the end times and new beginnings with Hollywood’s.

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Rated PG. Matthew 6:19-21.
Although this is a silly bit of froth about a young woman addicted to shopping, it provides a good opportunity for adults and youth to discuss some of the values in the teachings of Christ, especially his Sermon on the Mount. Manhattan denizen Rebecca Bloomwood has a closet full of shoes, dresses, and other “essentials” of women who think that VOGUE and other fashion magazines are the last word in determining what is important in life. However, she cannot resist stopping in stores and buying still more. After all, she can afford it with her dozens of “plastic money.” Then, like our banks, insurance companies and investment houses, have learned to our sorrow—there is the price to be paid when economic reality sets in, and she is the prey of a vociferous debt collector. Will he ruin her new journalist job, or—? Enjoy the laughs, and do look over again the 6th chapter of Matthew.

On TV: Kings

Not rated. Deuteronomy 4:5-9
There are two kings in the new series that NBC launched on Sunday, March 15, and they are based on the saga told in 1 Samuel about David and King Saul. Billed as a political soap opera—the advance notices claimed that this was not a “religious” story—we could call this Bible meets Dallas meets Shakespeare. After seeing the first episode, set in a modern nation called Gilboa where young David Shepherd has been brought back from the frontlines after destroying two enemy tanks, named “Goliaths,” King Silas Benjamin plans to use him for his PR value. David had rescued the King’s son being held hostage, Jack, but in this version the two seem unlikely to become close like the David and Jonathan in the original story. Jack feels humiliated at being rescued, and he resents his father giving David a high post that he had wanted for himself. Also, we learn from a heated exchange between father and son that the latter harbors a secret that could be politically damaging were it to be revealed. Oh yes, there is also the Rev. Ephram Samuels who, though he helped bring King Silas to power, breaks with him over the king’s renewal of the war with Gath.. Best thing so far about the series is actor Ian McShane as the ruthless King Silas. The network has picked up all 13 episodes of the series, so there is still time to alert folks or gather your Bible lovers together to watch and discuss the show. And if you missed the opening two-hour pilot, you can still watch it. Go and log onto www.nbc.com/Kings

On DVD: The Express

Rated PG. Isaiah 10:1-2 & 1 Corinthians 15:10.
Add one more excellent film to the sports genre with racism and the struggle to overcome as the main theme. Such films as Remember the Titans, Glory Road or Pride and this one might be formula films, but the formula works when done well, and this film is well made. Young Ernie Davis learned as a child how to outrun the white bullies trying to take what was his. On the high school football field in Elmira, New York he could out run, out dodge, and even at times leap over his opponents on his way to the goal post, thus earning the name of “The Elmira Express.” Recruited by the Syracuse University team, with the help of recent alumni Jim Brown, who had gone on to join Cleveland Browns, Ernie develops an at times tense relationship with coach Ben Schwartzwalder. Coach is ahead of his time in regard to racism, and yet not really free of it, as we see when the Syracuse team plays Southern teams where “colored” players are not welcome. Both the older man and the younger are enriched by their relationship. This story of the first African-American to be awarded the Heisman Trophy (in 1961), only to have his professional career cut short by leukemia, is one you will long remember.

Film Capsules February 2008

 

The Wrestler

Rated R.. Job 7:7-4
Regarded by many as Mickey Rourke’s “come-back film,” this is the sad tale of a once famous wrestler now sunk to the bottom of his profession. All of his matches are in make-shift arenas—veterans’ halls, schools, and community buildings. He attempts to reconcile with his long-estranged daughter, and begins an intimate relationship with a woman, also at the bottom of her profession—she is a lap dancer. Despite his failing health, he keeps on wrestling because the one place where he finds love and acceptance is in the ring, where he basks in the admiration of both the fans and fellow wrestlers. Far too bloody and violent for some tastes, the film is nonetheless a moving portrait of a desperate man.

Rachel Getting Married

Rated R.. Psalm 25: 6-11
This film about guilt and reconciliation contains some of the best rehearsal and wedding dinner scenes that I have seen since The Deer Hunter or The Godfather. Kym has been furloughed from a mental hospital to attend her sister Rachel’s wedding, so everyone at the large interracial gathering (the groom is African American) are a bit on edge, and with good reason, with Kym soon expressing her repressed feelings of recrimination, sisterly rivalry, and at 12-Step meetings, her guilt for a terrible event still haunting her. No wonder that Anne Hathaway (Kym) has been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar.

Notorious

Rated R. Proverbs 7:5-7
This will be of interest mainly to devotees of pop culture, director George Tillman Jr’s film dwelling on the short life of hip hop star Notorious B.I.G. Jamal Woolard. In his brief life he moved from a teenaged drug dealer to the top of his world, aided by record producer Sean Combs, who confronted him with the choice of either staying in the streets or signing a record contract. The film is full of street language and sexual trysts, and yet, oddly enough, permeated also with a spirituality, such as in the tough love scene in which B.I.G.’s mother refuses to bail him out of jail but prays for him during their telephone conversation.

Last Chance Harvey

Rated PG-13. Ezekiel 36:26
This is a wonderful Autumn romance story without the usual rip-the-clothes-off scenes. Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson are great together, he as the long-divorced father come to London to attend his daughter’s wedding, and she as an airport pollster whom he at first rudely brushes off. How they later meet and how he deals with the daughter who has to tell him that she wants her stepfather to give her away make for a movie experience that you will long remember. The theme of outsiders desiring to take a last chance at following their dreams has seldom been handled in such a tender way.

Revolutionary Road

Rated R.. Ecclesiastes 1:2-3; Matthew 7:24-27.
This tragic story of a disintegrating marriage, from the director of American Beauty, is set in the 1950s, the era of “The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit.” The Manhattan couple played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet feel trapped after moving into a suburban home on the ironically named Revolutionary Road.. Frank hates his cubicle job, and April feels unfulfilled, even though they have two children. But when she proposes that they sell everything and act on his dream to move to Paris so he can find his true calling, will they do so—especially when he is suddenly offered a promotion with a nice salary raise? Far more harrowing viewing than American Beauty (and minus that film‘s optimism), this provides a worthy exploration of unfulfilled dreams, temptation, and the cost of self-centeredness.

I Have Loved You So Long

Rated PG-13. Isaiah 43:18-19
A beautiful, slow moving film with many rewards for the patient viewer, this is the story of two sisters re-united after a 15 year separation. Bit by bit we learn the reason that Lea has not seen her older sister Juliette since she was a child: Juliette has been in prison, and it takes a while longer before we learn the reason—both for the latter’s imprisonment and the reason why there has not been any contact between the two. We see also why Lea’s husband Luc is uncomfortable around his sister-in-law. An insightful story of starting over again and rebonding with loved ones.

 

Film Capsules January 2008

 

Gran Torino

Rated R. 1 John 3:15-16 & 4:7-8.
Clint Eastwood directs his second excellent film within a year in what might be called “Dirty Harry Meets Archie Bunker Meets Saint Francis.” He works both sides of the camera this time, playing its lead, Walt Kowalski, retired from a Ford assembly line for several years. However, he is not enjoying life because his neighborhood has been taken over by a people he neither understands nor likes because they resemble the enemies he fought in Korea. It matters not to him that the Hmong. Refugees, from the hills of Vietnam, aided the Americans in the war. Their culture and religion are totally alien to him. Walt also does not care much for his grown children and their families. When a gang of thugs harass the family next door, Walt takes up his rifle and runs the goons off, thereafter becoming increasingly involved with teenaged Thau, the family’s only son. Often funny and touching, the film takes quite a turn at the climax, making it even more moving than Changeling.

Slumdog Millionaire

Rated R. Psalm 8:19 & Proverbs 13:12.
Director Danny Boyle, who gave us the delightful film about two boys discovering a bag of stolen money (Millions), takes us to India in this Cinderella story, also centering on two brothers. Jamal Malik and Salim Malik grow up in the teeming slums of Mumbai, hence their label, which provides the title of the film. Whereas Salim sees crime as the path out of poverty, Jamal manages to become a contestant on the Indian equivalent of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” However, after he answers the next to the last question, he is arrested by the police because the TV emcee does not believe that such a youth could legitimately know the answers. Under brutal interrogation, we see in flashbacks of his past life how he does indeed know the answers. But will the cynical, tough interrogator believe him?

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Rated PG-13. Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 & Colossians 4:5.
This is a fascinating, epic tale of a person born 85 years old, whom his father abandons because of his strange appearance. Raised by an African American woman who runs a home for the elderly, Benjamin grows younger as his body grows older, which becomes quite a dilemma when he falls in love with the woman he had known as a man/boy. His adventures and loves will linger in your memory long after you leave the theater. Somehow, despite the strong language and love scenes, this film was awarded a PG-13, rather than the R which it deserves—so beware.

Valkyrie

Rated PG-13. Ecclesiastes 4:1 & Genesis 18:32
Tom Cruise is excellent as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, the officer who became so impatient over the hesitancy of his fellow plotters against Hitler that he volunteered to deliver the bomb to the dictator’s mountain hideout. There had been numerous attempts to replace and/or kill the dictator, beginning in 1938. Because of his erratic schedule and good luck, Hitler had emerged unscathed from them all—indeed, was unaware that an attempt had been made on his life. The film shows von Stauffenberg participating with a dedicated band of civilians and military leaders in preparing for the act that would free their nation from Hitler’s terror, and, they hoped, would allow them to negotiate a peace settlement with the Allies. That they failed does not diminish their courage and dedication to principles far beyond the fanatical patriotism of their fellow citizens. A film of what “taking up the cross” in the face of great evil can mean.

Defiance

Rated R. Psalm 60:10-12.
Edward Zwick, director of such social justice-themed films as Glory, The Siege and Blood Diamond, shows us that not all Jews went meekly to their deaths at the hands of the Nazis. Based on the true story of four brothers who led a group of Jews in Belarus, the film seems like a chapter out of the Book of Maccabees, with its stirring battles of a few against the many and difficult survival during cruel winters in the forests of Belarus. Two of the brothers clash over moral issues, with the band of partisans finally accepting anyone, old or young, fleeing into the wilderness to live under their protection. It seems a miracle that only 50 out of the group of 1200 were lost to the relentless pursuit of the Nazis and Anti-Semitic peasants working with them

The Reader

Rated R. James 4:17.
Kate Winslet’s performance as Hanna Schmitz, once a guard at a Nazi extermination camp, is the main reason for seeing this film. The first part, set in the early 1950s, includes a great amount of nudity, the woman becoming involved in a love affair with the teenaged student Michael Berg. However, Hannah seems more interested in having Michael read to her than in sex. The film shifts to years later, long after their break-up when Michael is studying law, and his professor takes the class to witness a trial of a group of women who had been concentration camp guards. Michael is surprised that Hannah is one of these, but tells no one. Unlike the other women, she admits to her guilt, though not to being their leader. The other former guards insist that she was the one who headed up the group that selected prisoners to be sent to be gassed. Michael suddenly realizes why she could not have been in charge of the group, but will he come forward, thus saving her from a far more severe sentence than she deserves?

(c) 2009 Edward McNulty. One-time printing granted for church newsletters. Full reviews and discussion questions available at the subscription service visualparables.net

 

Film Capsules, Dec 2008

 

Doubt

Rated PG-13. Mark 9:24; Matthew 6:15-20
John Patrick Shanley plays with our first impressions of people in this adaptation of the prize-winning play, which he both adapted and directed. It is 1964, a time of turbulent change in the world and in the church. Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the new priest at St. Nicholas in the Bronx, wants to humanize the parish school more, but he is opposed by the strict disciplinarian principal, Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep). A young nun Sister James (Amy Adams) is caught between them when she reports that the priest is paying more than usual attention to a new student, Donald Muller, the first black student to be admitted to the school. You will be surprised at the reaction of the mother when Sister Aloysius talks with the her about the matter. The themes of faith, doubt, certainty, intolerance, and love make this an important film for Christians to see and discuss—especially if they have seen Bill Maher’s Religulous.

Australia

Rated PG-13 . Song of Solomon 1:2; Isaiah 58:6
Baz Luhrmann combines the elements of sweeping romance, war adventure, and concern for social justice in his new film. Set just before and during the early stage of World War Two in Australia, the story concerns haughty English aristocrat Sarah Ashley’s (Nicole Kidman) transformation when she treks to Australia to find out why her philandering husband has not sold their expansive cattle ranch. When he turns up dead and the evil neighbor wants to buy the place dirt-cheap, she joins forces with the man she hates, known only as the Drover (Hugh Jackman), and a rag-tag for an epic cattle drive to far off Darwin where the Army is badly in need of beef. She must deliver the cattle before her rival can do so, and he, of course goes all out to prevent this. If the plot sounds familiar, the film is enhanced by the presence of Aborigines, one of whom, a young boy named Nullah, narrates the film. This appealing boy brings out the best in both of the adults, as we see in two wonderful bar scenes when the Drover strikes a blow for gender and racial justice, and during the climactic Japanese attack on Darwin. Those who appreciate the racial justice theme will want to see a film that focuses entirely on what was once the Australian government’s policy of seizing from their mothers mixed blood children and educating them to become servants and agricultural workers, Rabbit Proof Fence.

Frost/Nixon

Rated R. Luke 4:5-7; Psalm 51:6-7
Ron Howard directs this attention-riveting adaptation of Peter Morgan’s popular play, and the two stars, Michael Sheen and Frank Langella are outstanding as David Frost and Richard Nixon. Set up like a David and Goliath story (remember Erin Brocovich in which a paralegal secretary goes up against a giant utility company, or an umpteenth dozen sports films?), the film delves into the details leading up to and during the taping of the TV interview watched by an estimated 400 million people. Everyone, including his own staff at first, regarded David Frost as a light-weight TV host, not a seasoned journalist, and thus expect him to fall flat on his face. Nixon accepted Frost’s offer because he wanted the large sum of money offered him, and because he thought he could easily outmaneuver Frost in a bid to restore his reputation after the disgrace of Watergate. Even though we know the outcome, this is one of those films filled with suspense and revelation of character, resembling ever so much one of those Greek or Shakespearean tragedies in which the protagonist is brought down by his hubris.

 

Film Capsules, Nov 2008

 

Changeling

Rated R. Psalm 9:9; Luke 4: 17b-19
Director Clint Eastwood takes us back to 1928 Los Angeles in this true story of a mother is aided by a Presbyterian minister in her search for justice. Single mom Christine Collins is overjoyed when the police announce that they have recovered her kidnapped son alive and well. It has
been five harrowing months during which she feared that her son might be dead.However, she is shocked, when sheand the police meet the boy at the train station, and she sees he is not her son. Captain Jones, keeping the horde of reporters at a distance, browbeats her, declaring that she must be confused because of her ordeal. She gives in and takes the imposter home,
but continues to call him urging that the search for her real son must go on.When the policeman has her arrested and sent to a psychiatric ward, the Rev. Gustav Briegleb comes to her
rescue. Long an adversary of the corrupt political and police system of L.A., he arouses public opinion so that the LAPD must face and admit the truth. But what of the fate of her son, as well as that of the imposter?

The Secret Life of Bees

Rated PG-13. Mark 3:33-35
Dakota Fanning and Queen Latifah head an excellent cast if this tale of a guilt-ridden girl seeking
love and healing in the South Carolina of the Civil Rights era. Fleeing a harsh father and the prejudice that threatened the life of her nanny and mother-surrogate Rosaleen, 14 year-old Lily and Rosaleen hitch hike to a small town that she thinks has a connection with the mother that she shot by accident ten years earlier. Here she finds refuge with the three Boatwright sisters, headed by August (Latifah), who raises bees and sells honey under the label of “The Black Madonna”—it was this label which Lily found amidst the few meager treasures she has from her mother that led her to the town. How she and Rosaleen, as well as one of the sisters find wholeness and healing will leave you with a warm feeling that despite the cold darkness of the world, there are many signs of hope.

W.

Rated PG-13. John 3:3.
Director Oliver Stone gave us a very one-sided picture of a troubled president in Nixon, but in this portrayal of our 43rd President, he offers a more balanced, even nuanced (for Stone) view. Covering the first term. the film bounces back and forth in time, omitting any reference to Bush’s Air National Guard service and whereabouts during the Vietnam era. The strained relations between father and son are emphasized, with the elder Bush frequently comparing George unfavorably with his brother Jeb. Bush’s wild days and his conversion to evangelical Christianity are depicted, with his following climb up the political ladder. He definitely seems not to be the smartest person in the room while discussing the invasion of Iraq with Vice President Cheney advisor Karl Rove, and his other staff members. Condoleezza Rice comes across as a “Yes” person, with only Colin Powell raising serious objections to an invasion. A fascinating take that both pro and anti Bush viewers will find acceptable and open to criticism.

 

Film Capsules, Oct 2008

FLASH OF GENIUS

Rated R. Length: 1 hour 59 min. Jeremiah 25:2
This story of the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper follows closely the David-vs-Goliath tradition of the little person up against the greedy corporation. (See Erin Brocovich; The Insider). Robert Kearns is a college professor and part-time inventor who comes up with his idea after witnessing a crash during a light rain. Joining with a friend to set up a factory to manufacture his product, he expects Ford Motors to play fairly when he leaves them a model of his wipers. Wanting to save money, they dismiss him and then come out a new car utilizing his invention. Against his family and partner’s wishes he engages in a long legal battle, eventually even representing himself in court. we are left wondering at the end if his victory was worth the cost. A powerful story of a determined man.

MIRACLE AT SANTA ANNA

Rated R. Length: 2 hour 40 min. Psalm 58:10-11
Spike Lee has produced an epic WW 2 story set in Italy that includes more than one miracle. What happened to four soldiers of the Negro 92nd Division when they became separated from their unit is framed by a murder in present day New York City. An elderly African American postal clerk stares briefly at another old man seeking postage stamps, takes out a gun, and shoots the customer point blank. During the investigation the police discover in the clerk’s apartment the head of an ancient Roman statue that turns out to be priceless. Switch to the mountainous region of WW 2 Italy, and a towering black GI who develops a close bond with the little boy whom he rescues during a Nazi bombardment. He is the soldier who carries the head of the statue, but the is he the postal clerk who shoots the customer? The film is long, and as we expect from Lee, filled with racial insights as he reminds us that blacks fought bravely for a country whose racial policies was closer to Hitler’s than it would admit.

FIREPROOF

Rated PG. Length: 2 hours 2 min. Romans 5:8
Caleb and his wife Catherine have grown apart over seven years of marriage and seem headed for the divorce court. He is a captain in the fire department, and she the public relations administrator for the local hospital. They argue over money, household responsibilities, seeming to agree on nothing, and each accusing the other as being the cause of their problems. Caleb’s father, revealing the past marital difficulties of his own, challenges his son to postpone action until he completes a 40 day program he calls the “Love Dare,” a plan Caleb resists because it also involves developing “a personal relationship with Jesus.” Although scoffed at by some secular critics, the film presents a good view of a disintegrating marriage and the self-effacing love required to restore good relationships, even the critic of the NY TIMES recognizing this.

THE BOY IN STRIPED PAJAMAS

Rated R. Length: 1 hour 53 min. Matt. 18:6; Rom. 6:23
In some ways similar to Life Is beautiful, this story of a friendship between two innocent boys ends with a stomach-wrenching wallop. The German boy is the son of the commander of the concentration camp, and his new friend is a Jewish boy whom the son thinks is wearing the striped pajamas of the title. Not even the Jewish boy is aware of the contents of the black smoke that pours out at intervals of the smokestacks of one of the large buildings. The young inmate accepts his fate as being part of a work detail, from which he often escapes to sit close to the fence where he can gaze at the outside world. This is a touching story, with some scenes that could be used to illustrate the great Rogers and Hammerstein song about planting prejudice in children, “You’ve Got to Be taught.”

RELIGULOUS

Rated R. Length: 1 hour 41 min. Jeremiah 18:15
Like so many critics of religion, Comedian/Commentator Bill Maher lands some telling blows against the absurdities of believers—his targets being evangelical Christians, the Roman Catholic Church, TV evangelists and cult figures, Mormons, and a radical rabbi who spoke at an Iranian Holocaust-denying conference. And like virtually all his fellow agnostic/atheist detractors, he seems to think that he is the only one making such criticism. Like Borat, Maher finds most of the believers whom he interviews easy targets, except for two Catholic priests who also reject biblical literalism. However, he does not follow up on these two. I wish he could encounter some intelligent Protestant leaders such as Jim Wallis of Sojourners fame, leaders whose criticism of the excesses of Fundamentalists are just as scathing as his. The film is often funny, a viewing of which could provide plenty of fodder for a group wanting to explore the relationship of faith and doubt. It would come as news to Mr. Maher that intelligent people of faith believe that doubt, what theologian Paul Tillich called “The Protestant principle,” the continual questioning of doctrine and tradition, is vital to genuine faith.

 

Film Capsules, Sept 2008

 

TRAITOR

Rated R. Length: 1 hour 53 min. Psalm 17:1-5, 8-12, 15
Don Cheadle turns in another sterling performance as a devout Muslim ex-GI trained in demolition explosives. The FBI notice that wherever he travels around the world, people are killed in shattering explosions. A pair of agents are hot on his trail as he gains greater access to the inner sanctum of the terrorist heierarchy. Both a good action/thriller and a film calling into question the stereotyped view that Islam is basically a religion of violence.

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED

Rated PG-13. Length: 2 hours 13 min. Ephesians 1:5-10.
This period piece, set in England between the two World wars, is an unusual love story set within the framework of author Evelyn Waugh’s (whose 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is the source of the script) Catholic belief that ultimately God’s grace cannot be escaped. Actually, there are two love stories, the first being that of Sebastian Flyte and Charles Ryder, who meet during their freshman year at Oxford. Forming an intense friendship, aristocratic Sebastian is upset when Charles falls in love with Julia, his sister—and, equally important, with the luxurious country estate presided over their mother, Lady Marchmain. The religious theme underlying the intricate story is subtle, but for those watching closely, just as crucial to understanding the film as the impassioned love story.

RIGHTEOUS KILL

Rated R. Length: 1 hour, 40 mins. Romans 12:19
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino team up as NYP partners, nick named Turk and Rooster. Steamed when a vicious racist-killer is set free at his trial, one of them plants a gun in the killer’s home so that he is arrested and convicted on a different crime. A series of killings have been taking place around town, the killer’s signature being a four-line poem justifying the murders. All of the victims have been vicious criminals who have until then escaped punishment by the law. Thus this is another in the long line of vigilante films going back to the Dirty Harry series and the more recent Street Kings. Although it is good to see two such prominent stars interacting, it is disappointing that their script isn’t a better one.

FROZEN RIVER

Rated R. Length: 1 hour 37 min.. Psalm 119:33-34 & Romans 2:14-16.
Ray Eddy is a New York trailer mother who, just before Christmas, is deserted by her husband. He has taken all of their savings, so she cannot pay for the other half of their trailer when it arrives. Unless she can come up with what is owed, she will lose both that half and her $1500 down payment. Also at risk is their large screen TV set, dearly loved by her five year and fifteen year-old sons, unless she can make payment by Christmas. She tries to convince her boss to be taken on full, rather than half, time as a store clerk, but he turns her down. She becomes embroiled with Lila, a young Mohawk woman, who had picked up the car that Ray’s husband had abandoned before leaving town on a bus. Lila, too, has problems, her infant son having been taken from her by the tribe, apparently because of neglect. The Mohawk reservation straddles the New York-Canadian border, so Lila involves Ray in smuggling illegal Chinese and Pakistani immigrants in the car, traveling across the frozen river that separates the two countries. This is a simply told but powerful film that deserves a wider audience than it is garnering at the Esquire.

HAMLET 2

Rated R. Length: Length 1 hour 34 min.. Proverbs 18:14-15
Vulgar, but very funny, this is the tale of failed actor Dana Marschz who is not even a very good drama teacher at the high school where his program is about to be terminated. The freshman critic for the school paper, after turning in a scathing report of the latest production Erin Brocovich, advises him to stop working on plays based on movies and do something original. And so Dana comes up with a sequal to Hamlet. His way of getting around the objection “But all the main characters wind up dead at the end” is to start in the present and have a character go back in a time machine and help Hamlet prevent the various deaths. As if this is not crazy enough, he brings in Jesus Christ as a main character, and Einstein as a supporting one. Many road blocks are thrown in his way, of course, this being a delightful take off on the ytried and true teacher and rebellious class bonding genre. Also, if you liked Christopher Guest’s Waiting for Guffman, this will entertain you, if you can put up with the vulgar language.

Film Capsules August 2008

 

Henry Poole Is Here

Rated PG. Ecclesiastes 2:16 & Mark 9:24
One of the best examinations of the ambiguity of faith and miracle since The Third Miracle or Pulp Fiction, this simple story of a man who has given up on life will thrill Christians, but provoke atheists (See the atheistic rant in the Users Comment on the film at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1029120/). Henry has bought a run-down house in a suburban neighborhood and wants to be left alone to drink and stare at the blank walls, but his neighbors will not let him be. Esperanza is sure that she sees the face of Jesus in the poorly applied stucco of the house, and soon her priest and others are hanging around wanting to turn the space into a shrine, especially when a red blotch appears on the face. There is also a little girl next door who has not talked since her father divorced her mother, and Mom herself is both kind and beautiful. Although there is little doubt that Henry too might eventually rediscover hope (we discover that he has good reason to despair), the enjoyment is in watching the process unfold.

X-Files: I Want to Believe

Rated PG-13. Mark 9:24 & John 20:25b
One does not have to have been a fan of the TV series to understand or appreciate this stand-alone film. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) have left the FBI years earlier, but are brought back when a defrocked priest claims to be having visions of a missing female FBI agent. Is he real or a fraud? Mulder, who does want to believe in the super natural, stands in sharp contrast to the scientifically inclined Scully, who has returned to practicing medicine at a Catholic hospital. Besides her Thomas-like skepticism is her loathing for the former priest, a convicted pedophile living in a community of pedophiles who watch and support one another in their struggle to go straight. Along with the usual elements of the action/thriller/crime genre is the theme of the radical grace of God, Scully almost sneering when she asks the praying ex-priest if he really believes that God answers his prayers.

The Dark Knight

Rated PG-13. Jeremiah 17:9 & Matthew 6:13
Both dark and violent, the film is nonetheless worth watching. Thrill seekers will be impressed by the action-packed sequences, and more thoughtful viewers will be impressed by Keith Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in which he is far more complex than the usual comic book portrayal of the villain. Relevant themes of vigilantism in fighting evil by extra-legal means, and the fine line between interrogation and torture seem to be taken out of the today’s headlines. After the fascinating comic-based films of this summer the super hero genre will never be the same.

Swing Vote

Rated PG-13. Proverbs 6:6-9 & 20:1 & Ephesians 4:25
A highly enjoyable populist tale based on a barely believable glitch in an electronic voting machine, the film is kept afloat mainly by the talent of Kevin Coster as Bud, a boozy out of work father, and his young daughter Molly, well played by newcomer Madeline Carroll. It seems that when he is too drunk to show up to vote his civic-minded daughter manages to sneak in and cast his vote. However a power outage causes it to be stuck, and throughout the rest of the state, it is a tie vote. When the authorities learn who cast the vote in the disabled machine, Bud is given ten days to recast “his” vote. Thus an army of reporters and both Presidential candidates descend on the little town. There are a number of funny scenes in this would-be “Washington Goes to Mr. Smith” film, but ultimately it raises and answers too readily in the affirmative the question, “Is it okay to commit voter fraud in a good cause?” Ultimately, this is a morally dubious tale so attractive that viewers are seduced into accepting the premise..

Mamma Mia!

Rated PG-13. Exodus 20:12
I was not among the 30 million who have seen the various stage productions of the play, so I am grateful for this version, filled with so many hummable ABBA songs. The plot is preposterous—that three highly successful men would accept an invitation to come to a remote Greek island for the wedding of the daughter of a lover whom they had not seen for 20 years—but the singing and dancing fortunately take up as much, if not more, screen time as the silly dialogue. And it’s great to see Meryl Streep have the opportunity to sing again, even if her acting this time is a bit over the top. However, accepting Pierce Bosnan’s “singing” is a bit painful: he should stay with action and drama films. The scenery is great, and the ensemble singing especially tuneful. Just don’t think much about the flimsy story.

 

Film Capsules July 2008

 

The Visitor

Rated PG-13.  Deuteronomy 10:19
Walter Vale, a still-grieving college professor, who lost his concert pianist wife several years before, returns to his little used Manhattan apartment to discover that two squatters are living there. Victims of a scam, the young couple, the young man is Tarek, from Syria, and his lover Zainab is from Senegal. She sells homemade jewelry at a flea market, and he plays the African drums at a jazz club and on the streets. Walter allows them to stay for a while, and they become friends, Tarek teaching Walter to play the drum. The latter returns to a love of life, joining his friend in a drum circle in Washington Square. Unfortunately their life together is threatened when Tarek is picked up by the police and turned over the immigration authorities. A powerful story friendship and liberation set amidst the current debate over illegal immigration.

Wall-E

Rated G. 
Add one more cute and cuddly robot to the list that includes Robbie (Forbidden Planet), R2D2 and 3CPO (Star Wars) in this wonderful movie that maintains the Pixar reputation of producing the finest movies for both children and adults. Wall-E has been rounding up and compacting humanity’s junk for over 700 years, ever since the last humans either died off or emigrated aboard a huge spaceship. Talk about a commentary on present day human waste! When he encounters a sleek scout named Eve, it is robot love at first sight, with the little trash robot following her back to the space ship exploring planets to see if they contain life, and then back to the huge space ark where humans have become so driven American nurse who rides horseback delivering food and pampered and fat that they no longer walk. This fascinating tale with an ecological moral affirms the human spirit, both that embedded in thinking machines and that within a listless humanity that still can be roused to meet a challenge.

Kung Fu Panda

Rated PG.  Acts 4:27-28
With nods to such films as Nacho Libre, Star Wars, and The Empire Strikes Back, this is a fun film for young and old. Set in ancient China where the Valley of Peace is threatened by a villain once trained by Kung-fu Master Shifu, the unlikely hero destined to become the Dragon Master is the over-stuffed panda Po, whose father wants him to follow in the family tradition of making great noodles. How Po becomes transformed into a might hero (the sequence owing a lot to Rocky) is scarcely believable, but certainly amusing, Master Shifu motivating the rather lazy Po by withholding his food, forcing him to fight for every morsel of his food.

The Children of Huang Shi

Rated PG-13. Matthew 9:36
Like the 1950s film Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Robert Spottswoodie’s film is set in war-torn China and based on a real-life person from England. Unlike Gladys Aylward, however, George Hogg is not a missionary but an ambitious cub reporter seeking adventure and fame. Almost losing his life to a Japanese executioner’s sword when caught with his photographs showing the brutal slaughter of civilians by the invaders, Hogg winds up reluctantly taking care of an orphanage full of sixty boys. He is greatly helped by Lee, a driven American nurse who rides her horse delivering food and medicines to various stations; Chen, a West Point graduate turned Communist; and Madame Wang, a local merchant and purveyor of opium. Also there is an epic trek over mountains to escape both the Japanese invaders and the Nationalist Chinese forces.

Hancock

Rated PG. Deuteronomy 30:19
Just when you think that the over-blown superhero genre has been exhausted, up pops another one with a new twist. Well, not entirely new, as before Hancock the animated The Incredibles raised the question of “What do superheroes do during their off hours?” Hancock’s twist is, “What are the consequences of the destruction of all of the property caused by a superhero’s titanic fights with his adversaries?” In Hancock’s case it is the opprobrium of almost everyone in Los Angeles, resulting in a flurry of damage lawsuits and hundreds of tickets served against him. When he rescues a PR man at a railroad crossing, the grateful man makes it his mission to change the superhero’s public image. The film spoofs its genre but also, like the best films based on a comic book character, has many touching moments of human anguish over loneliness and the necessity of self-sacrifice.

Mongol

Rated R. Psalm 44:6-7
Russian director Sergei Bodrov gives us a very different picture of the conqueror so often demonized by the Europeans who dreaded his seemingly invincible power. This, reportedly the first of a projected trilogy, could be subtitled "The Early Years," chronicling the tumultuous events from his boyhood to his middle years. Strong-willed from the start, 9 year-old Temujin insists on marrying the girl of his choice, rather than continue their journey to seek a political marriage desired by his father. (Temujin is his given name, the honorific Genghis Khan, meaning Universal Leader, bestowed on him much later.) How the boy escapes the clutches of his enemies after the murder of his father, grows up under the constant threat of death and eventually claims his bride, and then in turn is rescued by her from Chinese imprisonment makes for exciting viewing. The film contains gorgeous shots of the Mongolian mountains and plains, as well as bloody battle scenes.

 

Film Capsules, June 2008

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Rated PG-13.
It is good to see ole Indy back fighting villains who threaten the free world, especially because he teams up again with his flame from his first film, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). This time the villains are Russian Communists led by Cate Blanchett’s fierce Irina Spalko. Set during the Cold War of the 1950s, the film even touches upon the domestic villainy of McCarthyism, not bad for a summer action thriller. The film sends our heroes to the jungles of South America and a vast underground city, the origins of which are not of this world.

Iron Man
Rated PG-13.
This Marvel Comics-based film will be the gold-standard by which all other of this year’s summer action films will be judged, thanks largely to its star Robert Downey, Jr. He is Tony Stark, inheritor of a vast armaments manufacturing empire. During a tour of Afghanistan Tony sees first-hand the carnage that his products inflicts upon civilians as well as combatants. Captured by a war lord who hopes to force him to produce a super weapon, Tony works under duress, not only making an armored suit that can fly and resist all weapons, but also escaping in it. Back in the US he announces his intention to a startled press that he will convert his empire to manufacturing goods for peace. Not everyone is in favor of this, and thus Tony has to fight his close associate.

Son of Rambow
Rated PG-13.
What seemed like a spoof of the Rambo series turns out to be a tale of unlikely friendship between two boys and liberation from a stifling religious sect.. Set in 1980s England, under-sized Will Proudfoot is beset by school bully Lee Carter. Will’s widowed mother belongs to a strict, so he has never seen a movie, whereas Lee is being raised amidst squalor by a brother who uses him like a slave. Lee has secretly taped Rambo, First Blood so that he can make his own version with his camcorder. When Will joins him and enlists a bizarre French exchange student and his friends in the project, the results are both funny—and nearly tragic. Filled with crazy, dangerous stunts that the boys think up, the film should contain a warning for young viewers, “Do not try this at home!”

 

Film Capsules Apr 2008

Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who
Rated G. 1 Corinthians 16:13-14
If you are looking for a film that adults can enjoy as much as children, then this latest adaptation of a Dr. Seuss book is for you. Children will love the kind-hearted elephant Horton who refuses to give up his belief that he has heard a cry for help emanating from a mote of dust. Led by the narrow-minded Kanngaroo who fears that her child will be infected by his outlandish belief, she leads the denizens of the jungle of Nool in a campaign against Horton, even if it means killing him. But Horton has heard a voice pleading for help. It is from the Mayor of Who-ville, worried that his planet is about to be destroyed unless the mote of dust is securely anchored. The Mayor also faces opponents who do not believe that there is anyone “out there” who can help them. How Horton and the Mayor stand firm at great risk and work to avoid disaster adds up not only to an amusing story, but also a lesson about the danger of narrow-mindedness and the need to affirm what we cannot see. (The book’s author wrote the story at the time when Senator Joe McCarthy’s ruthless anti-Communist campaign threatened basic civil liberties in this country.)

Leatherheads.

Rated PG-13
Patterned after the screwball comedies of the 1930s and early 1940s, George Clooney’s film (he also directed it) chronicles the rise of professional football from cow pasture to lavish stadium. It is 1925, and the Duluth Bulldogs are so impoverished that they can afford but one football, and when it becomes lost, they have to forfeit a game because the host team is required to supply the ball. Disbanded when their opponent they are to play declares bankruptcy, their captain manages to convince the reigning college football to play for them in the expectation that he will draw the crowds. This proves to be the case. Part of the hero’s draw is that he was also a war hero, but when a brassy female reporter discovers that his war exploit did not happen as believed, everything threatens to come crashing down. The feel of the Roaring Twenties is convincingly evoked in this story, the sports writers who wrote the script basing it on their research into the history of the NFL.

The Other Boleyn Girl.

Rated PG.
Forget about history, this Tudor soap opera, reversing the roles of the actual Boleyn sisters Anne and Mary, as well as transforming their parents from being scandalized by their behavior into schemers using their daughters for their own advancement. When King Henry VIII visits the Boleyn estate, Anne is put forward as candidate for mistress, but instead he becomes enamored with Mary, who goes to his court to satisfy his lusts, Queen Katherine having been unable to provide a male heir. Eventually, as everyone knows, the King’s fancy turns to ambitious Anne, who holds him at bay until he agrees to take the unprecedented step of divorcing Katherine. She does not want to become mistress, but Queen. Intrigue piles upon intrigue, the film depicting Henry as rather easily manipulated and not at all the strong monarch of history and legend. This history as lust and bedroom antics is a spectacle for the eye, the costumes and estates and palaces being suitably lavish, but not very satisfying for anyone with a regard for historical fact.

In Bruges.

Rated R.
In this dark comedy two hit men are dispatched from Dublin to the small Medieval city of Bruges, Belgium to wait until the heat over a killing has subsided. Ken, the older of the pair, is to baby sit Ray, who has just botched his first job. In dispatching his target, a priest, he also killed a boy who was present, and to their boss Harry, the killing of a child is unforgivable. Ken grows to love the city and its art, but Ray will scarcely look at anything, preferring to complain while longing to be back in Dublin. Then the two come across a crew shooting a film, a main character being a dwarf. One of the crew members is a beautiful girl, whom Ray befriends and arranges to meet the next night for dinner. Ken stays behind in their room to receive the expected phone call from Harry. When it comes through he is disturbed that his order is to kill his undependable partner. Meanwhile, Ray is launched on an adventure that includes his fending off a robber and befriending the dwarf as well as the girl. The dwarf turns out to be a racist. Back at their lodgings Ken wrestles with his conscience, believing that there is potential for good in Ray—and yet his orders are explicit, including instructions on where to go to obtain a gun for the job. The film takes several unexpected turns, resulting in loving sacrifice and tragic irony that will leave you thinking about the ending for some time to come.

Stop-Loss.

Rated R. Job 17:11-16.
Made by the same director who directed Boys Don’t Cry, this Iraq War film shows the corrosive effect that the violence of war can have on soldiers, and an issue that has not received a lot of public attention. The Army has inserted a clause in the contract that recruits sign when they join that permits the commanders to extend the length of the soldier’s service if conditions warrant. When one soldier becomes victim of the process (called “stop-loss”, he rebels and goes AWOL, sending him on a journey across America. He sees the darker side of the Iraq War as it impacts the wounded and others who, like him have fled, living one step ahead of their pursuers while they make up their minds about leaving the country. Although the ending is flawed, the film raises important issues worth discussing.

Film Capsules, Mar 2008

Persepolis

(French, with English subtitles) Rated PG-13. Luke 23:34; Romans 12:2
Although the filmmakers use flat animation, this is probably the most realistic of films, thanks to the autobiographical story of co-director Marjane Satrapi , whose graphic novels form the basis of the film. beginning in Iran during the days of the Shah, this coming of age story follows the progress of a little girl coming to maturity amidst the regress of her country from tyranny under the Shah to a far worse one under the fundamentalist mullahs who rise to power. Determined to be her own person, Marjane resists her teachers trying to convince her that the veil is freedom that her liberal parents decide to send her to Vienna for her safety. Her clash with the nihilistic pop culture of the West and her series of mishaps that lead to deep introspection are wonderfully captured by the largely black and white animation and the expressive voices of the actors. Informative as to the recent history of Iran and inspiring through its feminist them, this is a good film for all ages above junior level to see and discuss.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

(In French with English subtitles) Rated PG-13. Matthew 10:29-30
How can one communicate when one’s body is so paralyzed that the only part of the body that moves is the left eye? And if one could, wouldn’t it be best to ask for euthanasia? Jean-Dominique Bauby had been the editor of the French fashion magazine ELLE when a terrible stroke left him paralyzed. The answer to how he can communicate comes from his ingenious therapist Henriette Durand who devices a chart of letters beginning in descending order with those most often used in speaking. He winks his eye when she (and family members and friends whom she trains) comes to the right letter, and then moves on to the next, and so on. It is so slow that the frustrated Bauby does want to give up, but Henriette will not allow this. How he and his loved ones struggle to communicate, eventually he writing his memoir, makes this one of the most inspirational testimonies to the human spirit that you are likely to see.

Juno Rated PG-13. Philippians 2:4

Juno is a pregnant teenager whose parents are unusually wise and understanding compared to the usual Hollywood teen movie. rejecting abortion, Juno, with the help of her best friend answers the newspaper ad of a yuppie couple anxious to adopt a baby. Juno decides to give over the infant, and then when matters do not go smoothly, she must decide whether to withdraw her offer. This tale of a spunky girl examining her relationship with her boyfriend and coming to a better understanding of herself is funny and poignant, a film to be enjoyed by youth and adults. In fact, it would be a good film for adults and youth to watch and discuss such issues as responsibility and developing self awareness.

Atonement Rated R.. Exodus 20:16; Psalm 32:3-5.

How can one set right a terrible wrong committed several years before? This question torments a young woman named Briony Tallis, whose false testimony, based on resentment and misunderstanding of something she saw, when she was a child tore apart her older sister Cecelia and her lover Robbie Turner. Convicted of a crime by Briony’s testimony, Robbie is sent to jail. When World War Two breaks out, he is allowed to enlist in the army, England desperately needing defenders. The two estranged sisters are brought together when they are assigned as nurses to a military hospital. Across the English Channel Robbie is a soldier awaiting evacuation from Dunkirk, vowing that he and Cecelia will be re-united. Will Cecelia’s efforts to reconcile succeed, and when Fate intervenes, can she discover a means to atone for her past misdeed? Plenty for a group to discuss, especially as to how the theme of the film relates to the Christian doctrine of the same name.

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep Rated PG-13. Psalm 104:24-26
If you liked Free Willy, you should enjoy this story of friendship between a lonely 12 year-old Scottish boy and a giant sea creature. Purportedly “the story behind” the famous Loch Ness Monster, the filmmakers have made the inland Loch Ness a large cove of the sea where during the Second World War the British have set up an artillery battery to counter any German invasion attempt. The boy living on the estate where the soldiers are encamped finds a large egg, and when it hatches, keeps secret from his mother the cute creature. However, it soon outgrows the bucket he has kept it in, and when he transfers it to the bathtub, his teenaged sister discovers it. From there event tumbles upon event, with funny and near tragic results. Good fun for the whole family.

The Savages Rated R. Ephesians 6:3-4.

An unhappy brother and sister must struggle with the problem of dealing with their once abusive father who is losing his faculties. How they cope with their feelings and meet the needs of the parent whom they resent is well worth watching. This is not your typical Hollywood feel good movie, with a scene of sweet reconciliation at the end, but a realistic depiction that has much to teach all viewers who will have (or already have) to cope with a parent whose mental faculties are in steep decline. Great acting by Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman!

 

Film Capsules Jan. 2008

 

Michael Clayton

Rated R. Deuteronomy 16:20; Psalm 82:3-4
George Clooney again is outstanding as world-weary lawyer Michael Clayton, as are Sydney Pollack as Marty Bach, head of the law firm, and Tom Wilkinson as Arthur Edens, the loose cannon colleague who is fed up with the immoral tactics of the firm.. Michael as the “fixer,” cleaning up the messes that the firm’s clients get themselves into, has his own problems—divorced and unable to spend the time he’d like with his young son; bankrupt because of the incompetence of his brother with whom he shares a business; and addicted to gambling. How will he handle his most recent assignment of hunting down Arthur, who has run off in a fit after creating an embarrassing scene with an important client and apt to divulge secrets that could ruin the firm?

I’m Not There

Rated R. Job 27:3-5
This is the most unusual biopic that I have ever seen in that director/writer Todd Haynes uses six—yes, that’s right, six—actors to portray singer/writer/activist Bob Dylan in his many public manifestations. Or, to use the older parlance, five actors, and one actress. Cate Blanchett as always rises to the occasion—it was pretty far into the movie before I recognized her! More startling, perhaps, is the director’s choice of a young black boy with a good singing voice to depict Dylan at the beginning of his career when he was traveling in box cars, emulating his idol Woody Guthrie. The title is bound up with the film’s depiction of Dylan’s always being true to his own inner light and refusing to cater to the demands of his fans and critics. Every time they try to pin him down—as folksinger, social activist/protestor, Christian singer—he moves on, declaring “I’m not there!”

I Am Legend

Rated PG-13. Isaiah 9:2
Will Smith turns in a performance equal to that of Tom Hanks (in Castaway) as the last surviving human in a Manhattan depopulated by a deadly virus that transforms an infected person into a murderous zombie. Accompanied only by his faithful dog, military scientist Robert Neville, hunts wild animals for meat in the city streets and in his Washington Square townhouse conducts experiments in his search for a cure to the disease. He is joined by a mother and her young son, the woman believing that God has sent her to him. Event piles up onto event, including his discovering the serum that will cure the disease, but what will happen when the zombies follow him home and break into his laboratory?

The Bucket List

Rated PG-13. 1 Corinthians 15:55-56
During the Middle Ages manuals were written to aid mortals in preparing for death. With the rise of the Age of Reason, these fell out of use, leaving people to fend for themselves, usually by pushing off any thought of death as being too morbid. In this film two men, one super rich and the other a mere auto mechanic, are forced to confront their own demise when told that they have terminal cancer. After a rocky beginning, the two become friends, making a “bucket list” of things they’d love to do before “kicking the bucket.” An amusing, but rather superficial buddy film, crippled by its less than realistic depiction of the ravages of cancer—and the fact that one (Jack Nicholson, with Morgan Freeman, of course, playing the common man) is so rich that the two can do anything they want. Like most such films, this one fails to confront “the sting of death” or point us to the One who removes it.

T. Great Debaters

Rated PG-13. Ephesians 6:10-14
Instead of a black football coach (Remember the Titans) leading an underdog team to victory Denzel Washington in this film portrays real-life English professor and debate coach Melvin B. Tolson at a small Texas black school during the days of the Great Depression. Again we root for the underdogs as he trains four students to become the first black team go up against those of white colleges—at least if he can convince the authorities at white colleges to even consider debating a “colored” one. Life is precarious for Tolson and his family because he moonlights as a union organizer, attempting to organize sharecroppers, white and black, so they can gain better prices for their crops. The local sheriff, hoping to gather evidence to arrest him, keeps a close watch on him. Filled with scenes of potentially deadly racism, the film is an inspiring reminder of how far our society has come in the seemingly everlasting battle against racism.

Sweeney Todd

Rated R. Psalm 58:10 & Romans 12:17-19
Perhaps the most gruesome of morality tales, Tim Burton’s version of the Broadway play is one more example of the versatility of actors Johnny Depp and Helen Bonham Carter, both performing their songs. His life destroyed 15 years earlier when Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), lusting after Sweeney’s beautiful wife, had him framed for a crime and transported to the penal colony in Australia, Sweeney Todd arrives back in London vowing vengeance. Mrs. Lovett (Carter), who has loved him all along, tells Todd that his wife and daughter are dead, and she becomes his willing accomplice when his demented mind drives him to murder a series of customers as he plots how to entice the Judge into his barber chair. The end results of his unbridled thirst for vengeance are as bloody as any Shakespearean tragedy and as inevitable as any tale from the Old Testament, wherein God commands us to disavow vengeance.

Charlie Wilson’s War

Rated R. Psalm 72:1-4
This history-based tale of how a venal US Congressman, a seemingly flighty society hostess, and a rogue CIA agent supplied Afghanistan guerillas to drive out their nation’s Soviet invaders will confirm the claim of believers that God uses surprisingly unlikely people to do his will. (Like calling a geriatric couple to leave the comfort and security of their home to travel into the unknown and begin a new people!) Tom Hanks, Julie Roberts, and Philip Seymour Hoffman (who seems to be everywhere during the past year!) are at the top of their form in this sometimes hilarious film. The latter touch has evoked criticism from some viewers as being inappropriate for such a serious subject, but they forget that the director is Mike Nichols, who years ago directed another film that shared a similar theme, the absurdity of war and its participants, Catch 22, based on Joseph Heller’s scathing denunciation of human cruelty and warfare.

 

Film Capsules Dec. 1-15

The Golden Compass
Isaiah 5:20-21 & Luke 17:2
Thanks to an amazing display of special effects, Philip Pullman’s fantasy novel about a girl striving to rescue a friend in an alternate universe is wondrously brought to life. The special effects are necessary because Lyra and everyone else has a daemon that stays close by, a daemon being an external soul that takes the form of an animal. Atheist Pullman has struck fear into some, lest their children be harmed, but viewers need not worry, his brand of atheism (toned way down in the film version) being the kind that Christians can ally with in a common struggle against any form of tyranny in church or theology that strips humans of their dignity and freedom.. The film follows our heroine on an epic journey to the frozen north as she learns to use “the golden compass,” called an “alethiometer,” a device through which the mysterious Dark Matter or Dust, forming the foundation of the universe, seeks to communicate truth to the device’s owner. She will need it in this world of armored bears and witches, strange flying machines, and a cruel church called the Magesterium, seeking to maintain its harsh control of society.

Lars and the Real Girl

1 Corinthians 13:7 & 11 & Romans 15:1 & 7
Despite the quirky center of the plot, an ultra-shy man’s so obsessed with an anatomical doll that he believes she is a real person, this is a totally engrossing film, celebrating the healing power of supportive acceptance and love. From Lar’s immediate family to his doctor to the pastor and members of his church this acceptance and love spreads out like a ripple in a pond. Warm, and often funny, the film avoids any trace of condescension in regards to its deluded hero. Seldom has the church and small town life been shown so positively, at least not since the days of Frank Capra.

August Rush

Psalm 98:4-9 & Isaiah 55:12
If you like music, you should enjoy this fantasy set in Manhattan about an abandoned boy seeking his long lost parents. Conceived by musician parents during their one and only night of meeting and then abandoned through circumstances not of his parents’ making, young Evan Taylor grows up in an orphanage where he refuses to be considered for adoption. Running away to NYC, he becomes a member of a group of street children led by a Fagin-like man calling himself the Wizard (played by Robin Williams, for once in a non-manic mode). The boy discovers that he has a gift for music and believes that through it he will eventually be able to contact his parents. Lots of ups and downs to the story, but always there is the gorgeous music. A very good film for the whole family.

Enchanted

Song of Solomon 8:6-7
This fun-filled Disney concoction, with its tongue firmly curled up in its cheek, lives up to its name, largely due to the charms of Amy Adams playing, Giselle, the heroine. In the animated portion of the film she finds herself banished by the wicked Queen (delightfully portrayed by Susan Sarandon, noted for her playing a long line of fierce mothers) to the wilds of Times Square. The Queen is fearful that her love-smitten son the Prince will marry Giselle, thus displacing herself as queen. Giselle is given shelter for the night by the widower Robert and his adorable daughter Morgan, who wonder about her strange ways, and—lots of complications ensue, including the Queen following her son into Manhattan because he had set forth to rescue his bride to be. Thus there are love triangles (Robert has a girl friend), and we are supposed to pretend that there could be a doubt as to whether or not he and Giselle will discover they are true soul mates. As formulaic as they come, the great fun is what happens along the way—terrific family fare.

The Martian Child

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
Is little Dennis from Mars, as he claims when David first spies him at an orphanage, or not? David is still grieving over the loss of his wife, but, despite the advice of his sister, he decides to follow through on the plans that they had made to adopt a child, the only real question being whom? Being a science fiction writer, he is intrigued by the boy whom he first sees through the hole in a large crate, Dennis fearing that the sun would be too much for his Martian skin. A couple of strange things happen when the boy claims the use of a mysterious power. However, the fearful boy is going to need all the love and patience that David can muster before his fears and feeling of abandonment can be overcome.

 

for November 15-30, 2007

No Country for Old Men.
Rated R. Job 24:1-4, 13-14

Tommy Lee Jones’ lived-in face is perfect for that of Sherriff Ed Tom Bell, a compassionate lawman, in a long line of lawmen in his family, who has seen two much human depravity during his long career. When he discovers that local acquaintance Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is connected with a recent massacre of drug dealers out in the south Texas desert, he sets forth to locate the fleeing Moss before Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), the hit man of the drug lord can find and kill him. Moss makes the deadly mistake of taking a suitcase stuffed with two million dollars from the site of the shootout which he has come upon while antelope hunting. Javier Bardem turns in a compelling performance as the killer who uses a cattle stun gun to blast his way past locks and to murder anyone who stands in his path. One of the most suspenseful moments is when he toys with a gas station clerk over wagering with a coin over payment of his tank of gas. This figures also at the end of the film, one which does not at all tie everything neatly together. Too grisly to be a family film, so beware—this is a Coen brothers film, but not anything like their O Brother, Where Art Thou..

Darfur Now
Documentary, Rated PG Proverbs 31:8-9

This compelling documentary puts a human face on what our own government calls “genocide” in Darfur, which is located in the southwest portion of the Sudan.. Six people, some citizens of Darfur and some American activists speak out as they go about trying to prevent more atrocities. Since protesting against their government’s policies in Khartoum, the government has backed a group of mounted killers known as “Janjaweeds” who have killed about 200.000 and displaced into refugee camps over 2 and a half million. Among the native Darfurans is a woman who has joined the armed rebellion and a village leader who has become sheikh at one of the 160 camps that have been set up to house the refugees. Don Cheadle and George Clooney assist a student activist to bring the situation to the attention of the public and the California legislature and governor. A good film on how you can become involved in a crisis calling for compassionate attention.

Dan in Real Life
Rated PG-13. Philippians 2:3-4; Ephesians 4:25.

If you enjoyed Steve Carell in Evan Almighty, you should even more in this romantic comedy in which he is paired opposite the stunning Juliette Binoche. He is Dan Burns, newspaper advice columnist who is a widower struggling to raise three daughters: Jane (Alison Pill), Cara (Brittany Robertson), and Lily (Marlene Lawston). Two of them are teenagers, so neither would accept any advice from their father. When they attend the annual Thanksgiving weekend gathering at the grand parents’ sea-side mansion, Dan meets Marie (Binoche) at a bookstore, and the two become so drawn to each other that they spend an hour or more talking over coffee. Dan is elated that he has met such a woman, but is crestfallen when his brother Mitch shows up with the girlfriend he has been telling everyone about. She is, of course, Marie. How can they spend so much time that weekend without revealing their attraction for each other and thus spoil things for Mitch and family?

American Gangster
Rated R. Psalm 101:1-4; Ecclesiastes 3:16-17

Denzel Washington as master criminal Frank Lucas and Russell Crowe as lawman Richie Roberts head up an impressive cast in this sweeping story set during the last half of the Vietnam War era. Lucas creates a drug empire in New York City by traveling to Vietnam where he makes deals with corrupt US service men to transport back to the States the pure drugs which he buys from a Chinese war lord up river, thus cutting out the middle man and selling a better product at a lower price than his competitors: just good ole American business practice. Meanwhile across the river in New Jersey no one wants to work with honest cop Richie Roberts when he turns in almost a million dollars he and his partner seized during a drug arrest. The corrupt cops are afraid that Richie will turn them in. How the lives of the crook and the cop converge adds up to a gripping tale that despite its over two and a half hour length never drags. Plenty for Bible students to ponder amidst the violent events of this fact-based film.

 

Film Capsules

 

November 1-14, 2007

 

Rendition

Rated R.. Ecclesiastes 4:1; Isaiah 5:20 (RSV); Matthew 5:7

This disturbing film puts a human face on the practice of our CIA of “extreme rendition” in regard to treatment of suspected terrorists. An Egyptian-born US businessman is returning home from South Africa when the CIA picks him up as he disembarks at a Washington DC airport, places a hood over his head, and ships him off to a north African nation for “interrogation.” No charges leveled against him; no explanation; no word given out to his anxious wife—indeed, the CIA erases his name from the passenger manifest so that there is no record of his ever boarding the plane! As she pursues the case, the State Department continues to deny any knowledge of his fate. All this because of a bombing in the north African nation and phone records that show that terrorists made several phone calls to his cell phone—or to someone with his name. Scenes of water boarding, electro-shock, and beatings, with the CIA agent looking on while the foreign agent does the actual dirty work fill in the meaning of the euphemism “interrogation.” This has not been a popular film, but as a movie that matters, it should be seen and discussed by all church folk who value our Constitution and its protection of human rights.

Gone Baby Gone

Rated R. Psalm 64:6

Ben Affleck moves behind the camera as co-writer and director of this haunting thriller. Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, who also wrote Mystic River, it shares the latter’s dark outlook on the depths to which even good people might resort when desperate. Casey Affleck as Patrick Kenzie and Michelle Monaghan as Angie Gennaro are a team of young detectives hired by the family to assist the police in the search for their missing little girl. Morgan Freeman plays the man in charge of the case, Detective Jack Doyle, who reluctantly agrees to cooperate with the pair—if they keep out of his way. The family thinks that people in their blue collar Boston neighborhood might open up more to them than the police. This proves correct, with many secrets dragged into the light, leading the pair to a startling conclusion and an agonizing decision by one of them that will threaten their romantic relationship.

In the Shadow of the Moon

Rated PG. Genesis1:1

This documentary film by a British director comes at a good time, with all the recent news about two women astronauts leading the teams that are adding another room to the international space station. Almost all of the 24 survivors are interviewed, clips of them being sandwiched between lots of familiar NASA footage, and considerable shots never seen before, much of it very spectacular. While I expected to admire the courage of the group, I was also pleased at the great amount of humor expressed, much of it at the speaker’s expense. This film can serve as a tonic to the melancholy induced by In the Valley of Elah and Rendition, the film taking us back to the all too brief time when the US was admired around the world (many of the people cheering the moon landing speak of “our” achievement, identifying themselves with America), and then came the 70s when the Vietnam War overshadowed everything—and now Iraq. And to think, it is a Brit behind this feel good about America film!

Balls of Fury

Rated PG-13.

This is a funny sports movie send-up that provides a brief escape from the troubles of the world. If you liked the crazy Talladega Nights, chances are you will enjoy the antics of a fallen ping pong star invited to compete in a life or death (losers are actually executed) series of matches at the elaborate estate of master criminal Feng (the latter delightfully played by Christopher Walken in Oriental make-up). There are some of the usual touches of sophomoric humor to put up with, but all in all, this is a fun movie with virtually no connection to reality, other than the good versus evil theme.

Film Capsules October 2007

 

In the Valley of Elah

Rated R . Habbakkuk 1:2-3

Like a lamentation by the ancient prophets Jeremiah or Habbakkuk, this moving film is not meant to send us out of the theater feeling good. Tommy Lee Jones’ performance as retired military policeman Hank Deerfield is Oscar caliber. He is searching for his just-back-from Iraq son who has gone A.W.O.L. Was he murdered, and if so, is the Army covering it up? During his search, aided by a small town woman police officer, he finds more than he bargained for, the symbolic ending strongly declaring that as a people we are in deep trouble because of what our “War on Terror” is doing to the psyches of our soldiers. Considerable swearing and violence make the film unsuitable for family viewing, but offers a great opportunity for adults to reflect together upon war-time violence and its effects. It is not surprising that this well-crafted film has not done well at the box office, but it is one that every American concerned for the nation should see.

The Kingdom

Rated R. Psalm 10:8-9. 1 Chronicles 12:17

Those who love thrillers will find plenty of interest in this film, though some might think that it is exploiting the headlines about Arab terrorists. Best part of the film is the opening sequence, a thumbnail history of the founding of “the Kingdom” (Saudi Arabia) and the emergence of oil. Next best part is the growing friendship between FBI investigator Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) and Col. Faris Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom), the Saudi officer assigned to keep him in line when Fleury leads a team to investigate a horrible bombing that took the lives of so many Americans housed in a walled compound. The scenes of violence are extreme, and the viewpoint either accepts it as a fact of life, or maybe suggests that there is an agreement on both sides in the War on Terror that violence is the only way. Lots for adults to discuss here.

T. Brave One

Rated R . Psalm 58:10-11. Romans 12:17-19.

Jody Foster again shows what a consummate actress she is in the role of a radio talk show host whose whole world collapses one dreadful night in New York’s Central Park. She is out with her fiance walking her dog when three thugs attack them. Her lover is killed, and she spends weeks hospitalized, slowly and painfully recovering from her own severe beating. Her body mends, but her soul is permanently scarred, the city she had once so loved now being a frightening place. Her decision to purchase a gun leads her into a morass when she finds herself witnessing a series of violent attacks—only her gun makes her more than a helpless witness. She is now able, and willing, to use it to get back at the bad guys. This is not a Charles Bronson in skirts vengeance tale, but one that describes the terrible change that can come over a traumatized person who decides not to be a victim again. Gun control advocates and NRA members will both find much that they will like in this unusual film. Definitely not for children.

Eastern Promises

Rated R . Proverbs 4:14-17

A London hospital midwife seeks to find the family of a young Russian woman who dies in childbirth. As the body is being taken away, the nurse slips a notebook out of the dead girl’s purse. Her quest takes her to a Russian restaurant where she meets the elderly owner and one of his drivers who also serves as a hit man. The restaurateur is actually the head of a Russian crime family, and when he learns that she has the dead girl’s diary he becomes obsessed with obtaining it. The hit man is attracted to the nurse, and eventually she to him as their lives become entwined, hers in danger of ending soon. The killings are shown so graphically that some will need to look away, so be warned. A powerful character study that ends on a note of grace.

Film Capsules September 2007

 

Resurrecting the Champ 

Rated R . Proverbs 17:9 & 19:2

Erik Kernan (Josh Hartnett), a Denver sports writer, sees a chance meeting with an old black man in the street who has just been beaten up by several young white thugs out to prove themselves as a way of re-invigorating his faltering career. Having heard the thugs call the man "Champ," Erik asks his name. "Bob Satterfield," the old man (Samuel L. Jackson),  answers. Having heard that Satterfield died some years before, Erik sells the magazine editor of his newspaper on a story about the former boxer and sets forth to interview Champ, growing attached to him along the way. However, when a sudden revelation arises, Erik's career and his relationship with his young son and estranged wife are threatened. He must deal with something that all reporters must face, but at a deeper level than ever--the truth, about his story and himself.

3:10 to Yuma 

Rated R. Psalm 11

The Western arises again in this psychological character study of a good man and a bad man and the choices they make. The "good man" is Dan Evans (Christian Bale), a veteran who lost his leg in the Civil War, now struggling to keep his Arizona ranch from a group of hoodlums who want to buy up all the land because a railroad is due to be built through the area. Neither his discouraged wife nor his teenaged son seem to think he is capable of holding out, so he accepts an offer to join a posse of four others to transport the newly captured robber Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to a distant town where he will be put on the 3:10 to Yuma train. The $200 pay will be enough to save his ranch. However, Wade's gang is still in the area, vowing to rescue him and gun down anyone standing in their way. When, after several adventures, they arrive at their destination, the gang frightens the other men, including a US Marshall, into abandoning their mission. Dan has to decide whether to stay with Wade and risk everything in face of the overwhelming opposition, or to melt away as the others did. Along the way Wade has been playing mind games with him, even promising to pay him many times his pay, if he will just stand aside. A powerful film in which ultimately the character of each determines the choices they make.

 

The Hunting Party 

Rated R. Psalm 94:1-3

Simon Hunt (Richard Gere) is a veteran TV reporter who has seen too much bloody violence in Serbia during the 1990s. When he finds the brutalized body of his fiancé just moments before going on the air live, he breaks down right on camera, derailing his career. His friend and cameraman Duck (Terrence Howard) goes on to become a successful member of the anchorman's staff back in New York, whereas Simon, steeped in alcohol and drugs, drifts between small assignments for obscure television outlets. When they meet again in Bosnia, Simon comes up with the crazy scheme of hunting "The Fox," a Serbian war criminal. Duck is very reluctant, but his friendship and curiosity overcome his better sense of judgment, and he agrees to go with Simon.  Joined by young Benjamin (Jesse Eisenberg), who obtained his job as Duck's assistant due to his father's influence, the three form the hunting party trekking into the mountains in search of the terrorist. They find, of course, more than they bargained for, and we are left with questions as to why the UN and US have not been able to track down the real life terrorists still residing free in the region.

 

Elizabeth: The Golden Age 

Rated R. Psalm 9:1-4

Cate Blanchett repeats her earlier triumph as Queen Elizabeth I in this sumptuous film that takes place during the late 1580s. Things seemed anything but golden to the Queen, beset as she was by plots to kill her at home and the threats of Spain's King Philip II (Jordi Molla)
 to stamp out her religion and make Catholicism again the religion of England. Clive Owen plays Walter Raleigh, who arrives at court from the New World bringing her golden seized from the Spanish, along with tobacco and a contingent of Native Americans. Drawn to him, she cannot act on her desires, so to keep him close at hand, she puts forth her chief lady-in-waiting, Bess (Abbie Cornish), to befriend him. Lots of court intrigues, assassination plots and betrayals, and some cruel prison/torture scenes, culminating in the Spanish Armada sailing toward England in 1588. A superior costume drama showing that the Christian faith was but a thin veneer for both Catholics and Protestants of the time, easily stripped aside when the high stakes of national security demanded it.

 

Film Capsules

August 15-30, 2007

Feast of Love.
Rated R. Song of Solomon 8:6-7; Isaiah 32:1-4a
Director Robert Benton brings the same sensitivity to this adaptation of Charles Baxter’s novel that he did with his own Places in the Heart. Narrated by Morgan Freemans’s Harry Stevenson, it follows the loves and foibles of several couples centered around a coffee shop at the edge of a college in Oregon. A visual meditation upon the importance of love and the need to see what is going on in front of our eyes, this is a film that every church leader should see—but be cautious in taking a group to see it, as there are several scenes of the naked bodies of the lovers. Definitely not a film for those easily offended by too much exposure of skin.

Talk to Me.
Rated R. Job 27:4; Proverbs 12:19; Romans 12:3
Bearing a superficial resemblance to Good Morning, Vietnam, this fact-based story of Washington DC radio personality ‘’Petey’’ Greene Jr. is another triumph for actor Don Cheadle. Emerging from prison, where his witty talent had emerged during his stint as DJ over the prison PA system, Petey gets off to a rocky start at a R & B station when he calls Washington Mayor Barry a “pimp.” However, the audience responds so well to his brash, vulgar honesty that his superiors stick with him. However, when he branches off into entertainment, winning a spot on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show, there is an unexpected turn in his career and life. The sequence in which Petey goes on the air when riots break out due to the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. is very powerful!

Death at a Funeral.
Rated PG-13. Luke 12:2-3
This delightful British farce directed by Frank Oz displays about everything that can go wrong at a funeral at an English rural estate, beginning with the arrival of the wrong body; to the accidental drugging of the daughter’s fiancé, causing him to take off his clothes and perch atop the roof; to the humiliation of the younger brother asked to give the eulogy despite the presence of his older brother who is a famous novelist; to the revelation by the unrecognized guest of a dark secret shared with the deceased. Despite several potty jokes, this is an enjoyable escape from the real world—I have seldom seen an audience laugh so much at a screening.

The Nanny Diaries.
Rated PG-13. Isaiah 32:9-11
The first part of the film in which newly graduated Annie conducts us on a tour of imaginary displays at New York’s Museum of Natural History as if she were an anthropologist exploring child rearing customs of natives is hilarious, as is how she mistakenly becomes a nanny for Upper East Side denizen Mrs. X and her obnoxious, but love starved son Grayer. The plot and the satirical approach will remind you of The Devil Wears Prada, but the insights (read “life lessons”) are presented in a more heavy handed manner.

 

Film Capsules

August 1—15, 2007

Hairspray. Psalm 123:3-4 and Philippians 4:11b
This remake of John Waters 1988 film features a heavily padded John Travolta playing hefty Edna Turnblad. Her daughter Tracy, also large sized, shares her mother’s comfortableness with a large body. An excellent dancer, she longs to become a part of the teenage dance troupe that she watches every day after school on Baltimore’s “The Corny Collins Show.” She gets her opportunity and then almost loses out when she makes friends with several “Negro” (it is 1962) teenagers banned from the show and joins them in protesting their treatment. The combination of the civil rights theme with that of accepting oneself despite the opinion of others make this more than just a hugely entertaining teenage musical. Queen Latifah’s song “I Know Where I’ve Been” is so movingly beautiful that it could have become an anthem of the civil rights movement had it been written earlier.

No Reservations. Luke 10:41a
This remake of the German Mostly Martha, is far better than most Americanized versions of European films. Catherine Zeta-Jones as the celebrity chef Kate and Aaron Eckhart as Nick, the admirer who comes to the kitchen because he wants to learn from her are very appealing. When her sister dies in a car crash, Kate becomes the guardian of her young niece, which complicates her rigidly scheduled life, as does Nick’s presence, which she resents, and also fears because he might be after her position. A charming story of character transformation set amidst some colorful shots of glorious food.

The Simpsons Movie. Ephesians 6:4
It has taken a long time for the longest running TV sitcom to become a movie, but the wait was well worth it. The fast-paced humor centering on the stupid antics of Homer Simpson and his hapless family will keep young and old roaring with laughter. Homer’s attempt to dump the refuse from his pet pig into the lake instead of at the city recycling center leads to a national pollution crisis, the EPA sending the Air Force to lower a dome over Springfield in order to protect the rest of the country. Driven out by the citizens who are angry at being cut off from the rest of the country, Homer takes his family to Alaska, where even the long-suffering Marge decides to pack up the kids and leave him. How he finds redemption and reconciliation includes several poignant moments, the most notable sequence being Bart looking to neighbor Ned Flanders for the fatherly affection that Homer fails to provide.

Rescue Dawn Psalm 3:1-2
The respected German filmmaker Werner Herzog again sets his main character in the midst of a cruel wilderness, as he did in Aguirre the Wrath of God , Fitzcarraldo, and Grizzly Man. Christian Bale portrays real life Dieter Dengler, a Navy pilot who was shot down during the covert bombing of Laos in the 60s. Held prisoner and tortured for six months, he becomes the focus of resistance and hope for his fellow prisoners, finally, when they learn they are to be killed, breaking out and trekking through the jungle as he hopes for either rescue or arrival at the Thai border. A powerful tale of courage and perseverance, the film surprisingly has many moments of humor as the prisoners comment on their life and treatment.

 

Film Capsules

July 15-31, 2007

 

Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix Rated PG-13.
Harry and his friends are well into their teens now, so their world is more complicated—and certainly more dangerous. Lord Valdemore is making a come-back in the flesh, but the Ministry of Magic refuses to recognize this, publicly labeling Harry a liar and troublemaker. Harry has his first kiss, struggles with his quick temper and desperate feeling of abandonment by his mentor Dumbledore. He finds himself training some of his fellow students to defend themselves against the dark arts when the Ministry of Magic sends the imperious Dolores Umbridge to “clean up” matters at Hogwarts School and she insists on teaching them only theory and not practical magic. Perhaps the best of the five, films this is a good condensation of the 700 + page novel.

Ratatouille Rated G. 1 Peter 4:10-11
Brad Bird, creator of the wonderful animated film The Iron Giant, gifts us with another delightful tale that will satisfy adults as well as children, especially those who tune in to Food Channel. Remy, a rat in a French village, has the gift of keen taste and smell, but at first these seem to be of little use, as they make him disdain the common garbage that his fellow rats devour. But when they discover that he can easily tell when their food is tainted with rat poisoning, he is put to work as the tribal food tester. His gifts come in even more handy when a storm washes him into a sewer and then into Paris, and Remy finds himself entering the kitchen of a once famous restaurant. How he manages to help a hapless bus boy named Linguini become a great chef and revive the reputation of the restaurant is both funny and heart warming.

Once Rated R.. 1 Cor. 13:4-5, 11
Forget Music and Lyrics: this is the wonderful little film that convincingly shows two gifted people collaborating to create songs of love and hope. Set in an Irish city, the principals are not named: the “boy” works by day in his father’s vacuum cleaner repair shop, and “the girl” cleans houses. At night he is a busker, playing pop songs for the coins thrown into his guitar case by pedestrians. She sells flowers on the street and longs to be able to afford a piano. They meet, and when she takes him to the music store where the friendly proprietor allows her to play the pianos, he shares some of his songs with her, and she agrees to work with him. Soon they are seeking other musicians for a pick up band to record an album. She has a child but is estranged from her husband, and he has a girl friend who has moved to London when they separated. He tells her that he plans soon to go and seek reconciliation. However, in the light of their mutual attraction we wonder: where will their paths lead? The ending is both satisfying and realistic in a way that most Hollywood filmmakers seem incapable of conceiving.

Becoming Jane Rated PG. Luke 10:38-42. I Timothy 2:11-15
Jane Austen is herself the center of this charming film set in Hampshire during the season leading up to Christmas 1795. Irish apprentice lawyer Tom Lefroy prefers dancing, boxing, and drinking to the study of law in London, so his disapproving uncle ships him off to Hampshire in the hope of him changing for the better. Expecting to be bored, Tom enters into a semi-adversarial relationship with the young Jane Austen, who has been resisting the efforts of her mother to marry her off to a local landed gentleman. Tom, intrigued by Jane’s desire to become a writer and thus support herself without having to marry a man she does not love, widens her horizons, eventually becoming so enamored with her that he proposes to throw aside all family obligations and elope together. The filmmakers have elaborated upon a brief relationship that Jane Austen had when she was 20 years old, giving us a fictional, bittersweet tale of the woman destined to become one of the great novelists of the English language.

Weeks of June, 2007

 

Away From Her Rated R 1 Cor 13:4-7
Grant (Gordon Pinsent) and Fiona (Julie Christie) have lived happily together for many years since his retirement from university teaching. When Fiona keeps forgetting things, she insists that they look into a home for Alzheimer’s patients, despite Grant’s reluctance. When she becomes lost during a cross country ski excursion, he reluctantly agrees. However, when the institution’s rules require that he not see or even talk with her on the telephone for 30 days, he is distressed to see that she has deteriorated so much that she no longer remembers him, transferring her attention to a male patient who is even worse off than she. This is one of those films that really grabs the heart of viewers, demonstrating what a truly good film can do. It is so true to what I have seen over the years of the Alzheimer-afflicted that I wish every older person and their family would see this film. Those who remember Julie Christie in Dr. Zhivago will be thrilled to see this great actress at the peak of her powers. (Was it really 42 years ago?)

Gracie Rated PG-13. 1 Cor 14:33b-35
The sports formula of the underdog struggling to achieve her goal despite great obstacles is alive and well in this film, loosely based on actress Elizabeth Shue’s teenage years. She plays the doubting (at first) Mom to Carly Schroeder’s Grace Bowen, who had idolized her older brother Johnny (Jesse Lee Soffer). A champion soccer player, Johnny also saw great athletic talent in his sister, and was always supportive of her. When he is killed in an auto accident, Grace and her family are devastated, and then she sees a way to overcome her grief. She announces to the family that she will take Johnny’s place on the high school team. The doubts of her parents (her father had been a champion soccer player himself and had trained Johnny) are considerable, but they fade away in comparison to the scorn and skepticism of her classmates, the male soccer players, and the coach. How she overcomes this (as did Elizabeth Shue herself) makes for inspiring watching!

Knocked Up Rated R. 1 Cor 13:11
I intended to stay away from this because of the vulgar title, but all of the buzz saying how good it is won me over, as did the actual film itself. If you can put up with some of the crude humor, this tale of two people who ordinarily would never think of marrying each other is very heartwarming. Sleek svelte Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) is a rising television interviewer and pudgy Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) lives with a bunch of slackers whose ambition is to start up a movie website dedicated to showing the scenes where the stars take off their clothes. After an alcohol-induced one night stand, Alison discovers that she is pregnant, Ben tells her that he will stand by her, even when she decides to keep the baby. During the process of becoming acquainted they discover that they like each other, this leading to a decision to marry. How Ben becomes a caring, responsible adult is a delight to watch, making this a film a value-affirming one, as well as funny.

Waitress Rated PG-13. Proverbs 13:12
Jenna ( Keri Russell), a waitress and pie baker at Joe’s Pie Diner, is trapped in a marriage to her abusive husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto). Her escape is to create a new pie such as “I Hate My Husband Pie or “Kick In The Pants” Pie,” and when she discovers that she is pregnant, she conjures up “I Don’t Want Earl’s Baby Pie.” Her dream is to participate in a national pie baking contest so that she will win enough to free herself of Earl. Then she becomes entangled with the new gynecologist who comes to town, and —. Although put off by the too easy acceptance of adultery, this is a funny and heart-warming story—and Jenna at last does make the right decision concerning her tryst with the married doctor. Andy Griffith plays Joe, owner of the diner, a curmudgeon who turns out to have a heart of gold.

Surf’s Up Rated PG. Mark 8:36
Bet you didn’t know that penguins invented surfing, did you? Although not as good as last summer’s animated penguin film Happy Feet, this one is still good for plenty of laughs—and for young viewers, a good moral lesson that friendship is better than winning. Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf) leaves his doubting family and friends in Antarctica to travel (by whale) to the tropical island where the world surfing championships are held. The arrogant Tank Evans (Diedrich Bader), nine-time winner, is expected to win again. Cody is overly self-confident, and so his trial run ends in disaster, but he becomes friends with life guard Lani Aliikai (Zooey Deschanel), as well as the one he met enroute, Chicken Joe (Jon Heder), and most inspiring to him, Big Z (Jeff Bridges), the champion and founder of surfing whom everyone had thought had died. Part of the fun of this film is its pseudo-documentary structure, making this seem like something Christopher Guest would make were he to create an animated film.

Ocean 13 Rated PG-13. Psalm 82:3-4
If you are really bored, I suppose this overstuffed revenge caper beats cutting out paper dolls. Lots of big name stars, whose dialogue I did not understand half the time, cooking up gadget-based schemes to break a Las Vegas casino whose owner (played by Al Pacino at his hammiest) cheated their mentor so badly that the poor guy went into cardiac arrest, and can be revived only by his buddies taking action against his nemesis. This is one that’s best to wait until it comes to a cheap seat theater!

 

Film Capsules

Weeks of May1-13, 2007

 

SPIDER-MAN 3.
Rated PG-13. Deut. 30:19; Romans 7:21-23; Matthew 18:21-22.
The critics haven't been too kind to the third film in the Spider-Man franchise, but the public apparently has not paid them much attention. The film took in another $60 million during its second week, boosting its revenue to almost a quarter of a billion dollars. There is plenty of action, Spidey fighting not one, but two super villains high above the streets of New York (as well as his best friend Harry, who blames Spidey for the death of his father), and there is equal attention given to his tangled emotional and personal life. We see the dark side of Peter Parker when he is puffed up by public adulation and becomes obsessed with seeking revenge for the death of his beloved uncle. His plans to propose marriage to Mary Jane go awry, and he has to face two new super villains. The film might not be as good as the second one, but there are still enough important themes similar to those in the gospel to make the film well worth taking in.

AFTER THE WEDDING.
Rated R. Proverbs 13:22; Luke 6:45.

This Danish film, also up for a 2006 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, must have made it difficult for the Academy members to choose, the film being just as good as the winner from Germany, The Lives of Others. There are two "good men" in this film, just as in the German one. Jacob loves working at an orphanage in India, and so is reluctant when he is asked to return to Denmark where a rich man has offered to make a large donation to the project, but only if he returns in person to meet with the benefactor. In Copenhagen, Jacob meets Jorgen, who invites him to his daughter's wedding that weekend. Although somewhat arrogant, and with a drinking problem, Jorgen turns out to be a good man, one who will go to great lengths to ensure the welfare of those whom he loves. During the weekend Jacob is in for quite a series of surprises that will change his life forever.

BLACK BOOK. Rated R. Psalm 144:11-14.
Deserving of its R rating due to full nudity and torrid sex, this thriller is nonetheless well worth seeing, being one of the best WW 2 era films to come along in a long time. Rachel Stein is a Jewish woman who becomes involved in the Dutch Resistance in 1944 and 1945, deliberately attracting the romantic attention of the head of the Gestapo Ludwig Muentze. There are so many plot twists due to betrayals and fast-moving action that the film will surprise even the most experienced viewer. This is an action/romance thriller for the thinking person.
 
FRACTURE. Rated  R. Psalm 9:16.
Anthony Hopkins has played heroic figures and characters horrendously evil (who can forget his Hannibal Lector!). In this murder film he is closer to Lector. He does not eat his victim, but he does shoot his adulterous wife in the head, confesses to the investigating detective (who is her lover), and then sits back and relishes the legal proceedings--the gun he allegedly used shows no mark of having been fired. Several searches of the house fail to turn up another gun, and the interval between the shooting and the arrival of the police allowed for no time for Hopkins to have disposed of the actual weapon. Thus it appears that the full-of-himself Assistant D.A. will be made a fool of in court, allowing the murderer to go free because he has repudiated his confession, claiming that the detective intimidated him into making it. Both a teasing film and a story, in the case of the assistant D.A. of character transformation.

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This is the home page of Visual Parables, the quarterly journal of film and faith. To see what a typical issue is like, click onto the "Sample Issue" tab. Also, you can see short reviews of current films that can be used in newsletters by clicking the "Film Capsules" tab. To view other issues of VP, from the current one back to Aug. 2003, you must be a subscriber. To subscribe, click onto the "Subscribing" tab at the left. Subscribers also have access, in between quarterly issues of the journal, to reviews of current films, so VP will keep you up to date as to what you should be seeing. We hope that you will find the free material so useful and interesting that you will want to join the Visual Parable community, a group of believers who believe that the God of the burning bush and boiling-over pot is still very much alive and calling to us, even at theaters and video stores.

 

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