Turner & Hooch

 Turner & Hooch (1989)

Starring Tom Hanks, Mare Winningham, Craig T. Nelson, and Beasley the Dog

Directed by Roger Spottiswoode

Written by Dennis Shryack, Michael Blodgett, Daniel Petrie, Jr., Jim Cash, and Jack Epps, Jr.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Dark Waters

Dark Waters (2019)

Starring Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, William Jackson Harper, Louisa Krause, and Bill Pullman

Directed by Todd Haynes

Written by Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

The Seagull

The Seagull (2018)

Starring Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan, Corey Stoll, Elisabeth Moss, Mare Winningham, Jon Tenney, Glenn Fleshler, Michael Zegen, Billy Howle, and Brian Dennehy

Directed by Michael Mayer

Written by Stephen Karam

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

Movie Review - Philomena

Philomena (2013)

Starring Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Sean Mahon, Peter Hermann, and Mare Winningham

Directed by Stephen Frears

In the 1940s, a teenage girl named Philomena (Sophie Kennedy Clark) gets pregnant and is sent to live at the Roscrea Catholic convent where she gives birth to her son Anthony.  The nuns have Philomena sign away her parental rights and end up giving the baby up for adoption, much to Philomena's distress.  Cut to decades later and an elderly Philomena (now played by Judi Dench) still finds herself thinking of her Anthony and wondering what happened to him, particularly now -- the year he would've turned fifty.  Philomena meets up with former disgraced politician-turned journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) who, in an attempt to help his image with the public, agrees to help the old woman search for her son in hopes that it will provide a fantastic human interest story for his bosses.

Based on a true story, Philomena doesn't shy away from heavy subject matter, tackling both religious and political themes.  While I welcome this aspect of Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope's script, I also must comment on their creative license that paints several figures in the piece as morally repugnant.  The film's final scene -- a showdown between two parties -- in fact never happened.  Placed in the film simply to up the dramatic quotient of things, the entire scene actually rang a bit untrue -- it was written almost childlike in its angry dialog -- and, come to find out, it never actually occurred.  Coogan and Pope were specifically twisting their plot to buoy their anti-religious standpoint.

However, for all the anti-Catholicism that occurs in the film, there is also a reverence given to the religion as well through the eyes of Philomena.  Despite all that happened to her as a child and the pain she's suffered through as an adult because of the loss of her child, she still looks to God for guidance.  The Catholic Church is certainly not without reproach and I give this film credit for trying to create a balance between the believers and the non-believers.  While I think Coogan and Pope went a step too far, they get close to their goal.

Philomena's story is a sad one, but the woman herself was a trooper and Judi Dench brings her joyful and respectful ways of life to the screen with gusto.  This'll sound corny, but there's heart on display that immediately connects the audience to the title character, with Dench bringing dignity to the title character's plight.  Dench really is fantastic here, garnering the accolade that I typically churn out at least once or twice an awards season -- even the slightest eye movement from conveys all we need to know about her character's internal thoughts which, to me, is an admirable quality in an actor.  While we certainly feel sorry for her, Philomena is a strong woman and Dench never makes us pity her -- something that easily could've happened.  Countering Dench, Steve Coogan's bitterness plays well against her and the duo really do have nice chemistry with one another.

Overall, Philomena is a solid film.  Although the writers made the finale a bit too dramatic for its own good, Dench's performance alone makes this one worth seeing.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - The War

The War (1994)

Starring Elijah Wood, Kevin Costner, Mare Winningham, and Lexi Randall

Directed by Jon Avnet

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

***Posted as part of the Elijah Wood Early 90s Mini Film Festival***

The unfortunate thing about this Elijah Wood Early 90s Mini Film Festival is that the films that made up this five day affair simply weren't all that good and 1994's The War does nothing to change that way of thinking.  However, what these films did prove is that Wood was a darn good child actor and although he sullied himself with the likes of Flipper following his appearance in The War, he has a stretch of movies in his youth for which he can be proud of his acting abilities.

It's 1970 in Mississippi and Stephen Simmons (Kevin Costner) has returned home from the Vietnam War with a Purple Heart and some severe post traumatic stress disorder.  Unable to hold down a job, Stephen is disappointed in his ability to help his family.  Still, Stephen's children Stu (Wood) and Lidia (Lexi Randall) love their dad despite the monetary struggles he's putting their mother (Mare Winningham) through.  Amidst the family toils, Stu and Lidia are finding themselves in their own war taking place in their backyard with the Lipnicki clan, a group of stereotypical redneckers who want nothing less than to ruin Stu and Lidia's summer and their plan to build the ultimate treehouse.  If you were guessing that there'd be some comparisons between the Vietnam War and this war over whether the Lipnickis or Simmonses own the treehouse, you'd be correct.

And that comparison is just one of the reasons the movie doesn't work.  It tries to bring "the war" to the homefront, but it just ends up being rather silly.  And it doesn't help that the Lipnicki kids who make up a huge part of the story are laughable caricatures of uncultured southerners.  Add in an underdeveloped and unnecessary racism subplot and The War is stretched too thin in terms of trying to seem "important."

But Elijah Wood and Kevin Costner help to elevate this to a decent level.  Costner is quite good as a dad under stress.  Had the film been simply about him and his family dealing with the aftereffects of Vietnam, there may have been something really special here.  Wood also provides the film with fine work.  He gets a chance to be silly and serious and was certainly coming into his own.  There's an obvious difference between Radio Flyer and this movie and his growth as an actor over those two years is nice to see.

The War is decently directed and shot and there's a nice musical score from Thomas Newman.  Unfortunately, it just doesn't really work since it tries too hard to be more important than its script allows it to be.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-