Marley & Me

The following review contains spoilers, so if you don't know anything about this film and plan to see it fresh you might want to skip the following.
Marley & Me is the Terms of Endearment of dog movies. The film's based a the real life story as penned by newspaper columnist John Grogan about his family dog. The real Marley even appeared in a film in 1996 that I've never heard of called The Last Home Run.
This is a movie where the dog dies and unlike countless similar films (Turner and Hooch for one) there's no baby Marley to carry the canine banner at the end. The direction by David Frankel is nothing to write home about however Marley & Me overcomes any narrative flaws in lieu of its superstar lead, or the over 20 labrador dogs that portray Marley from pup to old dog. I could be mistaken but I'd swear that one of the Marleys on display also appears as Clint Eastwood's dog in Gran Torino.
Marley & Me demands that the actors raise their talent to a higher plateau just to keep up with the charismatic titular dog. In other words a mediocre actress like Jennifer Anniston performs at a career best level throughout.
The last half hour of Marley & Me will reduce you to blubbering tears. Marley doesn't die easy. First he gets a stomach ailment and you think he's set to die. But he gets better although advanced age reduces him to just lying around the yard. Then the malady strikes again and Owen Wilson (playing the Grogan character) must watch painfully as Marley receives his lethal injection. But the story's far from over. When the family buries Marley in the backyard every member of the family voices a sincere dedication over the grave, each one more heartfelt than the last. Marley & Me will tear up the box office just like Marley the dog rips up the living room couch. As far as dog movies goes this is simply one of the best.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

You know this is something special when the very first image is the Paramount (followed by the Warner Brothers) logo formed by buttons dropping though the air. Originally a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald that appeared in Collier's Magazine in the early 1920s, this is a story where a man is born as an elderly man and ages backwards. The spectre of death follows Benjamin Button during his life. In the Fitzgerald story Button grows up during the Civil War era while the film sets the story in the 20th century.
As an aside it should be noted that since the film opened on Christmas Day the movie is being reported by the weak-kneed media as a Brad Pitt movie versus the Jennifer Anniston movie Marley & Me. Neither is further from the truth but the media never gets the story correct anyway. Marley & Me is a dog movie and the actors are the supporting bananas while Benjamin Button is a David Fincher movie from start to finish. You know you are being digitally manipulated with every frame yet you cannot look away.
Yes, Brad Pitt stars as does Cate Blanchett and the film opens on her as an elderly woman dying in a New Orleans hospital on the eve of Hurricane Katrina. The story unfolds as a flashback by Blanchett. This device is aided by the old lady's copy of Button's diary, as read to her on her death bed by her daughter (Julia Ormond).
Button (Pitt) is abandoned by his father who considers the old looking baby a freak, and grows up in an old folks home nurtured by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) a kindly woman who finds the baby cradled in a blanket on her doorstep. The stooped over young Button can barely walk and with his arthritic stance fits in with the home's elderly occupants. It's here he first meets Daisy (Blanchett) herself a fair-haired child. Throughout the film their paths cross but he's always getting younger while she's aging naturally.
Benjamin Button unreels with sheer beauty in all departments, although it's interesting to note that the film was shot digitally and may be the first film to so completely combine elements of analog emotion and computer enhanced precision. At one point Pitt walks into the frame as a man in his late 50s and you'll swear it's the same guy you saw in Thelma and Louise nearly 20 years ago.
As accomplished as Button is your humble scribe feels that Fincher's true masterpiece is his previous film Zodiac. That won't stop The Curious Case of Benjamin Button from totally sweeping awards from guilds and critics groups for the next couple of months.

The Spirit

When I was ten years old I would watch shows like Lost in Space and The Time Tunnel and I thought they were awesome. The best shows ever. To watch these shows now only has camp value for they are as plastic and cheesy as the nachos sold at movie theaters. The Spirit is a movie only a ten year old could love.
This is film noir for someone who's never seen a film noir. The Spirit is Sin City for the PG-13 crowd, based on a graphic novel by Will Eisner and adapted and directed by Sin City writer Frank Miller. The Spirit uses the style of Sin City - duo chromatic hues that are occasionally highlighted by red backgrounds, all shot on a stage against an effects screen. The baddie, a mascara-handicapped hambone called The Octopus wrecks havoc and only The Spirit (Gabriel Macht) can save the city. Samuel L. Jackson plays Octopus and he uses the word "eggs" as a pun or gag line the way he spews mother fucker in R-rated movies.
There's hot babe action aplenty - Eva Mendes, Kimberly Cox, Jaime King, Scarlett Johansson, Paz Vega, Sarah Paulson - only these aren't femme fatales so much as they're foils for the comic book style of the film. There's a cat that's pretty cool, but that's because the feline is the only on-screen talent who's not mugging for the camera. If this was a television show it'd last one season and become a cult item. As a feature film The Spirit might single-handedly put the kabosh on this style of filmmaking forever.

Valkyrie

Tom Cruise looks just like the guy. Especially with the eye patch and missing a hand. Valkyrie was the name of a plan to retain a provisional Nazi government in Germany in the event of the death of Hitler. Cruise playing Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg uses Valkyrie to stage a coup. Conspiring with top generals and politicians Stauffenberg himself takes on the task of placing the bomb that will eliminate the Fuehrer.
As directed by Bryan Singer Valkyrie is a taunt narrative with prominent attention to detail. Many locations in Germany, including the Benderblock the place where Stauffenberg was executed for his part in the assassination plot, provide a wonderful sense of history. Other locales such as Hitler's Berghof retreat, a home in the Barvarian Alps, are stunning in their natural beauty.
Singer, no stranger to Nazi stories (Aprt Pupil), collaborated with his Usual Suspects writer Christopher McQuarrie. While the pacing maintains a tight attitude don't confuse Valkyrie with a top drawer suspense film, which is what the ads suggest. The story works better as a historical recreation than as a thriller. Cruise is surrounded by a crew of excellent British actors like Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy and Terence Stamp among others, all strikingly convincing.

A Christmas Tale

You know those Christmas family reunion type films with a dysfunctional twist, like Family Stone or Home For the Holidays? Well, the French import A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël) takes the theme a step further. The black sheep son has been ostracized and cast out from the nuclear unit, but now the mother needs a bone marrow transplant to live and guess which child has the match?
A Christmas Tale stars some very recognizable actors, most notably Catherine Deneuve and Mathieu Amalric and depending on how many foreign films you watch you may also be familiar with thesps like Chiara Mastroianni and Emmanuelle Devos. There are fights and love, bitter feelings and family unity. The whole affair begins as we witness the death of one of the children soon after he is born. The action shifts to the eldest daughter suing the middle child (Amalric) in court. This is not a family that plays well together.
In the present day the holidays bring a bittersweet reunion. The film veers between showing members of the family just living their lives and the drama of whether Mom will survive her pending operation. The tone isn't melodramatic however and at times the situation abounds in humor. This is a large family and the possibilities for many outcomes exist. A Christmas Tale is currently unwinding exclusively at the River Oaks Three.

Doubt

There's little doubt of the heavyosity factor going into Doubt. Not only is it based on a play that won the Tony and a Pulitzer the cast includes Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Viola Davis and Amy Adams. The production design, costumes (the Sisters of Charity actually wore bonnets in this era), cinematography and score are above reproach. Which leaves me even more puzzled why I though Doubt was a weak-kneed attempt at a prestige picture. This is hardly a case of an emperor with no clothes, there are substantial issues brought to bear and early feedback has included numerous critic group awards and Golden Globe noms.
Doubt presents itself as an important picture and most film goers are ready to accept that position on faith. Set in the early 1960s when Vatican II reforms were about to change the state of the Catholic mass Doubt wants us to leave the theater in debate. That's its strong point, because you will want to discuss the ending. The whole point of John Patrick Shanley's work is to create doubt in both the audience and the fine cast they are watching. I would tell you what I think of the confrontation between Streep and Hoffman but that is precisely the thing that's supposed to be in question. The film is a litmus test that asks the viewer to take sides, like an impartial judge, of a he-said and she-said battle of wills.
Streep plays a crotchety mother superior, Adams is a first year nun and teacher learning the ropes, and Davis is a hard working mother whose son attends their school. Hoffman stands accused of being too familiar with his wards. The whole affair seeks to raise these characters above their element, it's not a text in which the church is lambasted. There's a speech Hoffman gives that recalls the story of a gossip who must tear open a down pillow and retrieve all the feathers to undo the malice created by rumor and innuendo. This speech is Catholic guilt speech number 101, and anyone who's ever attended church has probably heard the same parable.
Shanley previously won an Oscar for the screenplay to Moonstruck and directed the delightful Joe vs. the Volcano. Despite its platitudes I was nonplussed by Doubt. It's a minor effort where Streep overacts, Adams plays a nun that looks so beautiful it's hard to believe she took the vow, and Hoffman professionally nails the inner turmoil of his character. Viola Davis stands to gain the most as her performance will vault her to another pay level.