Military Wives

Military Wives (2020)

Starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan, Jason Flemyng, Greg Wise, Emma Lowndes, Gaby French, Lara Rossi, and Amy James-Kelly 

Directed by Peter Cattaneo

Written by Rachel Tunnard and Rosanne Flynn

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C+

Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour (2017)

Starring Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn, and Lily James

Directed by Joe Wright

Written by Anthony McCarten

Summary (in 500 words or less): British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) accepts the job and is immediately thrust into how to tackle the Axis forces as they invade Dunkirk in France. With tens of thousands of British soldiers in harm's way, Churchill faces the difficult decision of bargaining with Hitler or saving his men utilizing a very unique method of recruiting civilians with boats to head into war territory to carry of British troops.

• There's nothing particularly wrong with Darkest Hour, but in the end, it lacks uniqueness, playing a bit too much like typical formulaic historical biopics.  
• I did appreciate that writer Anthony McCarten focuses on only a short span of Churchill's job as PM (maybe a little over a month is all we're looking at here), rather than an entire biography of Churchill's life.  Having the Dunkirk invasion as the primary focus is a smart decision in that it (a) is a pivotal moment in WWII, and (b) shows us how Churchill handled a stressful and unique situation right off the bat upon starting his job.
• Gary Oldman is good as Churchill and creates a commanding presence, but I'm not quite sure he wowed me beyond delivering a solid performance.
• I did find some historical elements interesting -- it's amazing how close the Brits were to caving in to Hitler and his demands -- and this film does a better job than Dunkirk at conveying the extent of the amount of soldiers on the ground in Dunkirk that needed rescuing.
• Joe Wright is a consistently solid director whose visual aesthetic breathes a bit of fresh life into what could typically be stolid pieces of cinema.  He works his magic here as well to an admittedly lesser effect in part because much of the scenes feel purposely cloistered (particularly in the British War Rooms) as we see the weight of the situation caving in on Churchill.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Mission: Impossible

-- Mission: Impossible Week --
Please note that all Mission: Impossible Week film reviews may contain spoilers related to both the film that is being reviewed and other films in the series.

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Starring Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Vanessa Redgrave

Directed by Brian De Palma

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

The first film in the series, Mission: Impossible stands in stark contrast to the rest of the films that followed it...and that's not necessarily a bad thing.  Much more of a spy film than an action picture, director Brian De Palma creates a unique look for the film layering it with gray and blue overtones (whereas many of the others are filled with red and black visuals) and eschewing the bigger budget action set pieces for a bit more of a character-driven piece.  That said, the film isn't without its problems.

The flick builds its conflict around the lengthy opening set piece in which a group of IMF agents -- that's the Impossible Mission Force -- infiltrate a party in Prague in an attempt to retrieve a stolen list of IMF agents, the release of which will wreak havoc over the US government and the capabilities of their spy agency.  The mission doesn't succeed and as the agents leave the party, they find themselves ambushed seemingly leaving all but agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) dead.  Seeing as how Hunt survived the attack, his IMF superiors wonder if he is the mastermind behind it and the remainder of the film finds Hunt on his own personal impossible mission to find out who killed his team members.

This first film in the M:I series is the only one that really attempts to create a mystery surrounding who is the "big baddie."  Sure, other films have moments of surprise and red herrings, but they pretty much reveal the bad guy from the outset.  That's not the case here...and it's only moderately successful in terms of creating a whodunit atmosphere.  The biggest problem is that there are so few characters in the film that the possibilities of who could be behind the IMF attack are extremely limited and, in the end, create a lack of surprise when the "villain" is revealed.  Don't be mistaken - the film doesn't fail on this front, it's just that it doesn't succeed as well as it should because of the rather obvious culprit.

While Tom Cruise is certainly the "star" and he handles the lead role quite well, what's been incredibly pleasurable about this series as I've watched it is that they've built incredibly solid ensembles around the Big Name.  Here we get added oomph and gravitas from Jon Voight as Jim Phelps (a holdover character from the original Mission: Impossible tv show), Kristin Scott Thomas as a fellow IMF agent, and Vanessa Redgrave as a mysterious crook who is desperate to get that mysterious IMF secret agent list to sell it to the highest bidder.

As mentioned, Brian De Palma creates a different aesthetic in this initial film than those that follow it.  We're not treated to quick cuts or edits, but rather a camera that flows and moves a bit more casually than we're used to in action sequences.  We see interesting framing of faces and images that are typical of De Palma and admittedly only work sometimes (jarringly screaming "CINEMATIC" at other times), but at least provide interesting visuals.

Pleasingly, Mission: Impossible is a little smarter than your typical action picture.  It's not entirely successful, but it's a promising start to the multi-billion dollar-grossing series.  It's a shame that its sequel will end up nearly ruining the goodwill this flick brought to the screen.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Only God Forgives

Only God Forgives (2013)

Starring Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Vithaya Pansringarm

Directed by Nicholas Winding Refn

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

I'll be completely honest right up front and say that I didn't get Only God Forgives at all.  Then again, I'm not sure there was much "to get."  Blanketed in a sea of deep reds and blacks, Nicholas Winding Refn's film is well shot, but that's all it has going for it.  While it looks pretty, there's just nothing for the viewer to care about in the slightest.  The little story there is -- a man seeking revenge against the police officer who killed his older brother -- is generic, but it should at least stimulate a little bit of excitement in the viewer.  Instead, Refn (who is lensing his own screenplay) bathes his characters in an emotionless moroseness.  If they can't get riled up about anything, how in the hell am I supposed to give a damn about these characters' plights?

Ryan Gosling (who also starred in Refn's Drive) is Julian, a shady character in Bangkok's criminal underworld (although what he actually does isn't really specified), whose brother (also a shady character) is murdered thanks to a nefarious plot set up by Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm), the head police officer in the area.  When Julian's mother Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas) hears of the news, she travels from London to Bangkok in order to seek revenge for her son's death.  Julian, who heretofore was an empty, emotionless void, tries to muster up some modicum of energy to help his overbearing mother in her quest, but he finds himself depressed by the power-hungry role his mother plays in his life.

Ryan Gosling wanders around aimlessly saying next to nothing (he probably speaks ten lines throughout the entirety of the piece) while Kristin Scott Thomas chews up the scenery (in a refreshing way given the monotony of everything else) as the vicious Crystal.  Ultimately, the problem with Only God Forgives is that it's overbearingly plodding, slow, and depressing...and absolutely not worth watching.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012)

Starring Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Amr Waked, and Kristin Scott Thomas

Directed by Lasse Hallström

Let's be honest here.  With a title as odd as Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and a premise that seems almost too farfetched to be believable, this Lasse Hallström flick was facing an uphill battle.  The trailer seemed to be attached to every Oscar-bait movie last year and it conveyed nothing but boredom to me, hence the reason I never ventured out into theaters to check it out.  Much to my surprise, however, I found this light romantic dramedy quite enjoyable with its story being just different enough that it manages to hold one's attention despite its inherent silliness.

[I will say that there may be a slight favorable bias to films that take place in and around London for the next year or so for me.  After my trip over there this past summer, I find it infinitely cool to say, "I walked across that same bridge they're walking over!" which is something I certainly couldn't say six months ago.  Still, I don't think it adds a whole lot to the experience...it just maybe makes me pay a bit more attention to things than I did in the past.]

Yemeni Sheikh Muhammed (Amr Waked) has grown fascinated with salmon fishing while staying at his residence in England and longs to introduce the sport to his homeland at any cost.  He enlists the help of his financial advisor Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt) who, in turn, seeks assistance from a member of the British Fisheries and Wildlife department, Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor), who finds the project silly and frivolous, insisting that the climate conditions are not adequate to sustain the foolish whims of the sheikh.  However, after an explosion in Yemen that paints England in a poor light, the Prime Minister's press secretary Patricia Maxwell (Kristin Scott Thomas) sees this as a perfect opportunity to strengthen British-Yemeni relations and forces Dr. Jones to assist in the project.

While the whole thing seems nearly impossible to base a movie around, I found the entire plot to be surprisingly interesting and actually completely believable.  In fact, after the film, I looked up whether the film was based on a true story (it's not) which just goes to prove that screenwriter Simon Beaufoy sold me on the weird concept.  The film certainly ends up delving into the romantic side of things as Dr. Jones and Ms. Chetwode-Talbot end up slowly becoming enamored with one another despite complications in their love lives that should prevent romance from blossoming.  While this is certainly the weakest (and most obvious) part of the film, Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor sold me on it thanks to their charm and pleasant screen presence.  It's tough not to smile when they're onscreen here.  Kristin Scott Thomas also proves to be an absolute hoot as the overzealous, pushy, and often obnoxious press secretary.  That said, there are moments where the director maybe should have reined her in as she goes a bit too over-the-top at times which awkwardly changes the tone of the flick, but it's still nice to see her take on a comedic role -- something the actress rarely does.

I honestly can't believe I'm going to say this, but you really should give Salmon Fishing in the Yemen a chance.  I legitimately had no real desire to see it, but I found myself completely entertained by the flick which is certainly a shock to this reviewer.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Bel Ami

Bel Ami (2012)

Starring Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci, and Kristin Scott Thomas

Directed by Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

The fundamental flaw of Bel Ami is simply that I cannot comprehend how women lust after the pale-faced, solemn, and emotionless Robert Pattinson.  I don't get this guy's appeal and considering that he plays a ladies' man intent on rising up the ranks of the Parisian bourgeois by seducing and sleeping with the wives of influential men, the film finds itself at a disadvantage in my eyes.  [It certainly doesn't help that when Pattinson is asked to do anything on an emotional front beyond being "vacant," he fails laughably.]

Somehow, though, the film isn't a complete failure despite a leading role that leaves much to be desired.  Plain and simple, Bel Ami is a sexually driven soap opera set in 1890's Paris with Pattinson's Georges Duroy running from lady (Christina Ricci) to lady (Uma Thurman) to lady (Kristin Scott Thomas), quenching his carnal desires.  Ultimately, though, Georges is simply using these women of high society to find out the dirt on their husbands so he can try and impress them since his lower status as a soldier recently returned home from duty carries no caché.  Set this film a century later and you'd find it on the Lifetime channel as a movie of the week because despite the attempts at throwing in some political brouhaha about a takeover of Morocco, there's nothing going on in Bel Ami except for people romping in the hay.

Now, there's certainly nothing wrong with frivolous fun and Bel Ami fits that bill at times which actually made this enjoyable to watch for the most part.  It's also adequately directed by two newcomers to the cinematic scene who don't do anything special, but certainly don't do anything wrong.  If Robert Pattinson hadn't been cast as the main character, this likely may have ranked a bit higher.  But as it stands now, the only things that make this worth watching are the over-the-top performances of Ricci, Thurman, and Scott Thomas, and despite not being the worst thing you could watch streaming on Netflix, there's certainly better things out there.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - The Woman in the Fifth

The Woman in the Fifth (2012)

Starring Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas, Joanna Kulig and Samir Guesmi 

Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Let me be honest and upfront here with this one...I'm not quite sure what I watched with The Woman in the Fifth.  The story begins rather straightforward -- or so it seems -- when struggling American writer/college professor Tom Ricks (Ethan Hawke) moves to Paris to be closer to his daughter whom his ex-wife has taken away from him (perhaps not without justification).  After a rough first encounter with his ex and an even rougher ride on a Parisian bus, Tom finds himself with his luggage stolen and hardly a penny to his name.  In a more industrial (read: grittier) part of town, Tom wanders into a bar/coffee shop/hotel run by Sezer (Samir Guesmi) and convinces him to allow him to reside there for a bit.  While essentially stalking his ex-wife and his daughter, Tom wanders the streets of Paris and meets an American bookshop owner who convinces him to come to a literary party he's throwing.  Tom obliges and while at the party he meets Margit (Kristin Scott Thomas) and is instantly drawn to her.  They begin a torrid affair...and that's when things start to unravel for Tom.  Not only may Margit not be who she says she is, but Tom himself may not be the man he always thought he was.

There's something utterly intriguing about The Woman in the Fifth that had I watched it on another evening I might have found pretentious.  But, for some reason, I found myself fully involved in the goings-on of the plot.  That said, I'm still not fully sure of what actually happened in the movie.  What starts as a rather normal, formulaic film ends up being a bit more of a mindf*ck than I was expecting.

Ethan Hawke anchors the film with a strong performance as the beleaguered dad Tom who only wants to spend time with his daughter...so why won't his ex-wife let him?  We in the audience don't know the answer to that and Tom doesn't seem to know either, but Hawke does a nice job of creating a bit of a sense of mystery, while at the same time crafting a full, well-rounded character.  Kristin Scott Thomas has a pivotal role, but it's a much smaller one than I'd been led to believe it would be.  Margit is a mystery and remains one even after the film is over and because of that, Scott Thomas is never quite able to create a persona with which we can identify (which I realize is likely the point, but it leaves us feeling rather cold about her character as a whole).  There's also a nice performance from Joanna Kulig (whom I recently saw in this film) as Sezer's employee and lover who begins to fall for Tom to perhaps disastrous consequences.

The Woman in the Fifth is an odd film and one that I can't recommend to all, but what it does is leave the viewer with a sense of mystery that lingers quite a bit after watching it.  And sometimes a movie that doesn't answer all the questions it poses is as thought-provoking as one that spells everything out for you.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Sarah's Key

Sarah's Key (2011)

Starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Mélusine Mayance

Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Benefiting from a nice performance from Kristin Scott Thomas as Julia Jarmond, a modern-day journalist writing an article about the horrible 1942 Vel' d'Hiv roundup in Paris, France, during which the French government collected all Parisian Jews to be sent to concentration camps in Germany, Sarah's Key is a low-key glimpse of a horrid piece of little known (to me, anyway) French history.  The film is a good one, but it doesn't quite ever reach the emotional level it should -- it strives to be touching, but it ends up lacking that extra something that connects the audience to the characters it presents.

The film jumps back and forth in time between 1942 and 2009, following two story arcs, only one of which really carries any weight which ultimately is the main reason Sarah's Key lacks the heart that is expected when dealing with such a weighty topic.  The 2009 story involves the aforementioned Julia on a mission to discover all she can about the Vel' d'Hiv movement only to uncover that the apartment she and her family are renovating was the home to a Jewish family in 1942 who were taken away in the round-up.  The story then jumps back to 1942 where we find the true soul of the movie as it follows ten year-old Sarah (Mélusine Mayance) who lived in the apartment and whose family was taken in the Vel' d'Hiv.  However, ingenious Sarah lies to the French police when they ask about the whereabouts of her younger brother and she hides him in a locked closet telling him not to come out until she returns to get him.  As Sarah gets taken to various locations throughout France, she refuses to give up hope on returning to save her brother and will do whatever necessary to get home.

Obviously, Sarah's story is where the film really shines and young Mélusine Mayance more than holds her own in carrying her scenes.  Unfortunately, despite Kristin Scott Thomas's ability to continue to be a strong presence in nearly every film I've seen her in (and her strength in this film as a British actress taking on the role of an American who speaks fluent French), Julia's half of the film isn't nearly as riveting as the half focusing on Sarah.  They try and give Julia a problem -- she's pregnant "late in life" and it causes some issues with her marriage -- but when you put that up against "the Holocaust," it's not exactly an even match-up.

While it isn't perfect, Sarah's Key is still a tale worth telling with some very good acting and a story that, despite only half working, keeps one's interest.  The Vel' d'Hiv is something I knew nothing about and it's a shocking and horrifying peace of our world's history.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Love Crime

Love Crime [Crime d'amour] (2011)

Starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Ludivine Sagnier, and Patrick Mille

Directed by Alain Corneau

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

There is almost a guilty pleasure aspect to Love Crime, a French thriller that revolves around the rather headstrong and cutthroat business executive Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas) and her younger protégé Isabelle (Ludivine Sagnier).  Almost.  As Christine's nastiness increases and Isabelle's tolerance of it decreases, it's obvious that things are eventually going to come to blows between the two ladies.  However, despite the ludicrousness of the whole ordeal (which certainly aids the aforementioned guilty pleasure the film nearly succeeds at provides), the acting here is just much too over-the-top to be believed and it hinders the film much too much.

It didn't occur to me until the final five minutes of Love Crime that the film sets up its characters in an almost "pornographic" way (complete with a weird and undeveloped lesbian undertone that I still don't understand in the slightest).  Kristin Scott Thomas's Christine is the dominatrix, wearing high heels and pants, exuding sex all the time, whereas Ludivine Sagnier's Isabelle wears glasses, frumpy jackets and dresses, and is the epitome of "boring [but sexy] librarian."  The two flirt with each other often (because that's what French women do apparently) and they are set up like polar opposites, but both are overly sexualized to the nth degree.  Now, there's certainly nothing wrong with being overly sexualized, but this film directed and co-written by Alain Corneau doesn't allow its characters to have any depth beyond their physical characteristics.  There's nothing for these two actresses to sink their teeth into beyond the soap opera-type levels of drama, duplicity, and deviousness. 

I like Kristin Scott Thomas quite a bit and her acting chops here unfortunately cause the young Ludivine Sagnier to look second-rate especially in a film that pits these two women against each other from the get-go.  Admittedly, Sagnier is saddled with a ridiculous character in the first half of the film and manages to improve a bit as the film rolls on, but I'm not sure she's ready for the big time yet.

Love Crime is unfortunately not very good, but could have very easily jumped into the realm of enjoyable sleaziness.  As it stands now, I'm sure there are late night Cinemax movies that tell this same tale with substantially more nudity, all-out cheesy acting, and a perhaps more believable plot that would probably be more enjoyable to watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Nowhere Boy

Nowhere Boy (2010)

Starring Aaron Johnson, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Anne-Marie Duff

Directed by Sam Taylor-Wood

There's a reason I've held off on announcing the 2010 RyMickey Awards and it's because I want to give myself time to see these little movies like Nowhere Boy that I might not have had an opportunity to see last year.  [This film, for example, played for one week at the local cineplex and then vanished.]  What a nice pleasant surprise this biographical take of Beatles star John Lennon's late teen years is.

Aaron Johnson, perhaps best known up until this point as starring in the title role in 2010's Kick Ass, takes on the iconic John Lennon in this flick.  Of course, he's playing John Lennon as a seventeen year-old which was quite a ways before he and his mates made it big as perhaps the most popular music group of all time.  Here we find John living with his rather stern aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) who, while only wanting what's best for her nephew, ends up stifling him creating a rather rambunctious youth.  John always wondered what happened to his mother and one day he discovers that she lives within walking distance from his house.  Finding the courage to face the mother who abandoned him as a youngster, John meets the rather free-spirited Julia (Anne-Marie Duff) for the first time in over a decade and soon begins to form a bond with her, much to the chagrin of her sister Mimi.

Anyone who has read this blog knows that the "biopic" is one of my least favorite genres, but Nowhere Boy succeeds where others have failed in that it focuses solely on five years of John Lennon's life.  We never even hear a Beatles song here.  Instead, this is a look at part of what shaped Lennon into the man he would become.  This brief glimpse into a short portion of his life is intriguing and shows fans something they may not have known about the singing superstar.

It also helps immensely that the film is carried by three really stellar performances.  Aaron Johnson is pretty great as Lennon, showcasing both emotional vulnerability and the necessary rock star swagger needed to be an aspiring teen idol.  Kristin Scott Thomas takes what could have been a stereotypical curmudgeonly role and turns it into something rather endearing.  Despite her icy demeanor, it's obvious that she cares for young John and wants to nurture him the best she can.

But perhaps the best role belongs to Anne-Marie Duff, an actress who is new to me, but delivers one heckuva performance as John's long lost mom, Julia.  She knows that John is in good hands with Mimi and she knows she herself wasn't quite fit to raise John a decade ago.  Having two daughters now and seemingly having settled down, John's re-emergence in her life seems to cause her to revert back to the crazier days of her youth which is obviously a detriment to her current family situation.  There's a twinkle in Julia's eyes whenever she's around John, but behind the happiness that Duff presents is a sorrow for having to be the "adult" that she is forced to be today.  This struggle is pivotal to the flick and Duff excels in every scene.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-

Movie Review - Easy Virtue (2009)

Starring Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Ben Barnes
Directed by Stephan Elliot

Noel Coward is supposed to be witty, apparently. That being said, this is the second Noel Coward "production" I've seen this year (the first being the play Hay Fever) and I'm not seeing that biting humor. Maybe the 1920s laughs don't translate well to this millenium.

Young John Whittaker (Ben Barnes) has recently married American Larita (Jessica Biel) and he is bringing her home to meet his British family, including his uppity, stick-up-her-ass mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) and his "stuck in a loveless marriage" father (Colin Firth). A simple story that could've been fleshed out, but unfortunately falls flat.

Unfortunately, Jessica Biel is not good here. She's stilted and way too mannered for the role which seemed to require some edginess. And not to be upstaged in the disappointment department, Kristin Scott Thomas makes her character much too one-note and obvious in her pompousness. On the positive side, the men here -- Firth and Barnes -- make the movie watchable.

The director throws in some really odd touches -- if you ever wanted to hear a 1920s version of the 70s disco classics "Car Wash" and "SexBomb" this is the movie for you. He also really likes to look at reflections of people -- in mirrors, in windows, in pool balls -- it got really ridiculous.

It's not that the movie was awful, but it's just not worth the time.

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Movie Review - Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)

Starring Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy, Joan Cusack, John Goodman, and Kristin Scott Thomas
Written by Tracey Jackson and Tim Firth
Directed by P.J. Hogan

I'll never understand women and fashion. Does owning a pair of shoes really make you feel better about yourself? Does purchasing some shitty looking green scarf make you think other people will like you more? Put on some clothes and go out, for Christ's sakes.

Isla Fisher is Rebecca who is in complete denial of the fact that she can't stop shopping. She's maxed out all of her credit cards, is unable to pay the rent to her roommate, and is constantly hiding from debt collectors. It doesn't help that she's lost her job as a writer at a gardening magazine. Through a twist of fate, she ends up working at a money magazine. How she gets hired there, I don't know. It's one of those typical movie moves where the character gets a job via false pretenses, then the lie is revealed and the person who was fibbed to gets angry, but all ends up fine in the end because the liar is so darn cute and nice and the deceitfulness wasn't that bad to begin with, right? Ugh.

This comment isn't all that important, but it really bugged me -- The film was filled with incredibly weird musical interludes (for example, Rebecca's dad pulls some ugly-looking camper up to his house to the tune of some crappy dance song that stops immediately when he stops the camper...the music was not playing in the camper, either). How clever is it that when she gets sent to group therapy, Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" plays (and they do that joke twice!)? Who woulda thunk of that? And what chick flick would be complete without a dance scene? Ladies love dancing, so let's throw that in there, please! But make sure we have one of the characters say something along the lines of "I don't know how to dance" and then dance amazingly well or super funny or both!

I must admit that Isla Fisher, who I've only seen in Wedding Crashers, is quite charming. It's a shame that she's burdened with such a lousy character in this. While she makes the most of it, it's tough to rise above this character who really never learns her lesson and who is stuck with a typical film romance where there's no way two people would fall in love, but end up swooning over each other in the end. And the character that Rebecca falls in love with is your typical emotionless robotic automaton who we've seen in tons of rom-coms. Still, without Fisher in the role, the movie would've been nearly unwatchable, so there's something to be said for that.

There were two things that were incredibly aggravating to me (and spoiler alert here). Apparently, the "bad guy" in this movie is the debt collector. Since he's doing his job, I don't understand why he's set up as this evil man. Rebecca owes a ton of money, why shouldn't she be hounded by this guy instead of buying the pair of knee-high Prada boots? Secondly, Rebecca makes her money back by having a sale of all her clothing. She's essentially coddling others (who are banging down doors in order to get into this sale) into becoming shopaholics to cure her "disease." I didn't get it at all. It's okay for you to fall apart as long as I'm getting better.

The RyMickey Rating: D

Movie Review -- Tell No One (Ne le dis a personne) (2007)

***Available on DVD***

Starring François Cluzet, Marie-Josée Croze, and Kristin Scott Thomas

Directed and Written by Guillaume Canet

I'm actually on a roll with French movies lately. First, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, then I've Loved You So Long, and now this taut thriller.

Alexandre Beck (Cluzet) was living a perfect life -- a beautiful wife, great friends (one of which is English actress Scott Thomas who proves to be incredibly fluent in French), a wonderful job as a pediatrician. And then his wife is murdered. Eight years go by and two bodies are found that cause the supposedly solved murder case to be reopened with Alex a prime suspect. As if that wasn't enough to weigh on Alex's mind, he soon receives an e-mail from his supposedly dead wife. Could she really still be alive?

It's a great premise and the film definitely delivers. The acting is spectacular by all, particularly Cluzet. He was really riveting in his portrayal of a grieving widow hellbent on finding out the truth behind his wife's murder. All the various character actors really inhabited their roles as well.

Writer-director Canet certainly delivers on the directing front. I thought the film looked great, had taut, exciting action sequences, and provided moments of heartfelt sincerity. I don't want to ruin anything, but I did have a problem with the film at about the halfway mark and my issue lasted for about 20 minutes...just a minor flaw in the story. But the film definitely picked up at the end. The end...I never really saw that one coming...twist upon twist, but they certainly did not feel forced at all. They absolutely felt like they really could've happened.

Overall, this is definitely one that you should rent. Even if you're not up on reading subtitles, give this one a shot.

The RyMickey Rating: B+

DVD Round-Up

Here's a trio of "foreign" flicks...some of which are better than others...

I've Loved You So Long (2008)

If only this movie were a little shorter, it certainly would've ranked in the top five of 2008 movies I had seen. Nevertheless, this French film is definitely a winner because of two great female performances. Kristin Scott Thomas is Juliette, a woman who was imprisoned for fifteen years for murdering her son, and Elsa Zylberstein is Lea, Juliette's sister who longs to create a relationship that has been missing for so many years. These two actresses are really just amazing...how neither of them got Oscar nominations is beyond me. Like I said, it certainly lulls in parts, but the revelation that occurs at the end was shocking to me and threw a whole new perspective on the movie and Thomas's performance in particular.

The RyMickey Rating: B+

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Let the Right One In (2008)

I don't know if I've ever seen a Swedish movie before, but I can be certain that I've never seen a Swedish vampire movie. Definitely different, the film is good, but not as great as the raves it was getting at the end of 2008 (it showed up on many Top Ten lists). Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) is a twelve year-old boy who is constantly bullied at school and finds some solace in Eli (Lina Leandersson), an odd girl who just moved into his apartment complex. Perhaps the reason she's so odd is that she's actually a vampire. The film focuses on some vampire lore that I've never seen before in movies and it's certainly not the least bit scary (although there is bloodsucking, but what would a vampire flick be without bloodsucking?). Although the two young leads are stellar (I really can't say enough about the two of them...they were great), the relationship set up between them feels way too adult. There were scenes between the two of them that made me incredibly uncomfortable...they were much more, for lack of a better word, sensual than anything I've seen in any American flick. Add to that uncomfortableness, the director paces the film incredibly slowly. There were definitely whole scenes that could've been removed to make it flow better. Nevertheless, not a bad movie and certainly a different movie. Worth a rental if the general idea of the film intrigues you at all.

The RyMickey Rating: B-

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Australia (2008)

This is likely the only one of these three movies that most people have heard of and it's by far the worst of the three. Unfortunately for the film, I'm liking it less and less the more time passes after watching it. Nicole Kidman is awful in this. Wide-eyed and oddly theatrical, I laughed at her when I shouldn't have. As far as Hugh Jackman goes, he was serviceable in his role, but he was nothing special. I (used to?) appreciate Baz Luhrmann as a director, but his goal to produce an "epic" film fell tremendously flat. The film veers from over-the-top in the first thirty minutes to way too serious in the last hour (with a crazed villain thrown in for good measure) and he never finds an appropriate balance. The film is a simple love story between two unlikely people and there's not enough story to last 165 minutes. Plus, the film seriously could've ended an hour earlier. The whole war saga at the end was completely and utterly unnecessary. I remember that when we first got the movie at the theater, the film broke, we had to pass the theater, and people asked me, "How much of the film was left?" I said, "At least an hour," and they said, "Really? It seemed like it was ending." Well, it could've ended after 105 minutes...in fact, Baz even throws in a montage and voice-over narration that you might expect to see at the end of a movie, but he then makes it go on for over an hour more. My appreciation for Baz certainly lessened after watching this one.

The RyMickey Rating: D+