Something Wicked This Way Comes

 Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

Starring Jason Robards, Jonathan Pryce, Diane Ladd, Pam Grier, Vidal Peterson, and Shawn Carson

Directed by Jack Clayton

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B

The Two Popes

The Two Popes (2019)

Starring Jonathan Pryce, Anthony Hopkins, and Juan Minujín

Directed by Fernando Meirelles

Written by Anthony McCarten and Frank Cotrrell-Boyce

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B-

The Man Who Invented Christmas

The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)

Starring Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, and Jonathan Pryce

Directed by Bharat Nalluri

Written by Susan Coyne

***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

The Wife

The Wife (2018)

Starring Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, Christian Slater, Max Irons, Annie Starke, Harry Lloyd, and Elizabeth McGovern

Directed by Björn Runge

Written by Jane Anderson

Summary (in 500 words or less):  When her husband Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) is honored with the Nobel Prize for Literature, his wife Joan (Glenn Close) is forced to look closely at her past and determine a path for her future.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review - The Salvation

The Salvation (2015)

Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green, Eric Cantona, Mikael Persbrandt, Douglas Henshall, Michael Raymond-James, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Jonathan Pryce

Directed by Kristian Levring

"Out of the wreckage of the Danish defeat in the war of 1864, Jon and his brother crossed the Atlantic to forge a new future for themselves.  For seven years, they struggled to get a foothold in an unfamiliar land.

Seven years in which Jon longed for his wife, Marie, and their son.  Seven years of a family apart.  The year is 1871.  The country, America."

And with that somewhat oddly-worded opening, The Salvation begins its revenge-filled tale.  Unfortunately for Jon (Mads Mikkelsen), tragedy strikes as soon as his wife and young son come to America when a pair of men kill the new immigrants.  Jon swiftly does away with the two men, but his saddened emotional state doesn't have much time to deal with his actions as the brother (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) of one of the men Jon killed decides that the standard Old West dictum of "an eye for an eye" must be followed and begins to seek out Jon to end his life.

Westerns aren't really my cup of tea and The Salvation doesn't do much to change that notion.  It kept my attention for the most part, but the whole story has a heaviness (inherent in its plot, I realize) that makes it a bit difficult to truly enjoy.  Mads Mikkelsen is solid, nicely conveying his character's grief-stricken motivations, but much of the rest of the cast seems to be chewing up the scenery a little bit more than is necessary.  This one proves to be fine, but doesn't have a truly compelling reason for me to highly recommend it.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Hysteria

Hysteria (2012)

Starring Hugh Dancy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rupert Everett, Jonathan Pryce, and Felicity Jones

Directed by Tanya Wexler

British women in the late 19th century were irritable creatures.  Garnering very little respect from their husbands, they found themselves heading to their doctors where they were diagnosed with "hysteria."  The cure, employed by docs like Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce), was to massage the genital area (in a purely decent manner underneath a velvet curtain) to induce a "paroxysmal convulsion" unaware that this was actually an orgasm.  Dr. Dalrymple finds his practice overwhelmed with hysterical women so he hires young physician Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) who happens to have a knack for curing the disease.  More and more women flock to him to be relieved of their sickness which unfortunately causes his hand to cramp up substantially and he is fired by Dalrymple for not being able to perform his duties.  This dismissal happens to be quite fortuitous as Mortimer discovers that his friend Lord Edmund St. John-Smythe (Rupert Everett) has developed an electric feather duster which Mortimer believes could be the answer to his injured hand and the ladies' hysteria problems.  And, henceforth, the vibrator forever became a tool for women across the world.

Hysteria tells the story of the invention of the vibrator...and if that were the only story it told, it would've been a success.  Instead, the trio of screenwriters add in a love triangle involving Mortimer and Dr. Dalrymple's two daughters -- the younger, more reverent Emily (Felicity Jones) and the older, new-age feminist Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal) -- which takes over the film's second half and causes it to fall flat on its face.  The obvious nature of the resolution of the love triangle from the film's outset created nary a modicum of tension and failed to resonate in the slightest despite the valiant efforts of Hugh Dancy who tries his hardest to be charming and carry the film on his shoulders.

I wanted to like this movie and for the first 45 minutes or so, I found Hysteria humorous enough to warrant its existence.  However, as the film progresses, it abandons its subject matter which makes it unique and turns into something we've seen over and over again in movies better than this.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Jack Davenport, and Jonathan Pryce

Directed by Gore Verbinski

There's nothing wrong per se with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, but I can't help but feel that it lacks the fun and excitement of my favorite action-adventure films (like the Indiana Jones series or Romancing the Stone).  Sure, Johnny Depp created quite an iconic character in his Oscar-nominated constantly nonsensical Jack Sparrow.  His character and performance is certainly fun to watch, but the film feels interminably long at moments.  There's no need for this affair to go on for 135 minutes (which makes me wonder how the heck I'm going to make it through installments two and three which are even longer...yes, I've never seen them).

Unfortunately, it just feels like there's not a cohesive storyline throughout.  Sure, there's the overarching tale about Sparrow attempting to seek revenge against Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), a pirate who several years ago mutinously abandoned Sparrow on a deserted island taking Sparrow's ship and crew under his control. That alone would have been enough (and would have proven to be successful), but throwing in the wooden and dull star-crossed lovers Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) just bog down the proceedings.  I just couldn't get myself to care about either of these two young lovebirds and that's what hurts the film when compared to the mystical, magical, adventurous storyline revolving around Sparrow and Barbossa.

In the end, I'm probably sounding a bit harsher than I'd like.  The film is certainly amusing and a solid summer action picture.  It's just that with a little more trimming, it could have been a real classic.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-