SALT: A Must-See!

Wowee! Salt gives new meaning to being "on the edge of your seat." Let me tell you, I was walking to the theater today, thinking I wonder why this show is still in theaters. Usually when I want to see a movie, it disappears before I have a chance. "Salt" has been out since, what, June? I seem to recall mentioning this to someone at least two months ago. It's September now. Most of the summer has passed. Guess why it is still showing?

Although I haven't heard that it's gotten tremendous critical reviews, someone must be talking about it and people must be going to see it. I can understand. This is not for film snobs, but it's the most fun I've had at the theater since I Am Legend. What a ride. Picks you up from the beginning and you don't ever really sit down again.  And yes, the whole time you are wondering "Who is Salt?"

Is she a CIA agent, or a Russian spy? That is only the first question you're asked and asking yourself. Is she a good guy or a bad guy? It is very difficult to decide, but you're rooting for her anyway. Something's up with her for sure. Is she a victim of brainwashing? Was she traumatized as a child? Or does she have her own agenda -- and if so, what the heck is it?

You don't really have time to think about it, because you're biting your nails watching Angelina Jolie leap from the top of one semi to another across multiple freeway overpasses, scale the interior walls of an elevator shaft or knock down ten FBI agents without dropping her one small handgun. Yes, she flies through midair and kicks like a ninja warrior! Although she is not technically playing a superhero in this movie, she may as well be.

But that's not the reason you're rooting for her. What I loved most about this movie -- and it's the exact reason some critics panned it -- was that Salt has a heart. While you're questioning her motives and admiring her skills, there's not much you know about her except one thing. She loves her husband. You might spend time wondering what role he plays in all this, but it's not nearly as important as the fascination with a woman who can kick ass and take names and still be -- well, a woman. In one key scene especially, she has to hide her emotions even when she's dying inside. By this time, yes, I could feel every beat of her heart as if it were my own.

So Leo Can Fail, After All! (not really)

I'm just kidding. Leo didn't fail. But after thinking for many years "anything with this actor's gonna be good..." Well, I finally saw the first Leonardo DiCaprio film that I didn't like. Shutter Island, what a let-down. Actually, Leo did the best he could. The problems with the film had nothing to do with him, really. His acting was its usual clever/didn't-see-this-coming mixed with suave. The film however! Yikes! First of all, haven't we seen this one before? A movie about a mental institution with a "missing" patient? Unless this is your Very First Movie, (and how old would you have to be? 5? in which case it would probably scare you), you know how this is going to end.

But I was willing to accept that, as a matter of fact, and go with the flow. I had already heard that the movie was dull and predictable and squishy. I was ready to know the ending from the beginning. I figured there would still be drama to enjoy along the way. There wasn't! An hour into it, I'm sitting there wondering, So when are we going to get to the point? It was the equivalent of a chase scene where the main character is not chasing anyone. You will never know how painful it was for me to watch Leo running around, acting it up, making squinty eyes and hot demands from everyone around him, essentially purposeless. I mean by that: What drove this character? If the story were to be believed, he was a U.S. Marshal trying to solve a missing persons case. Yet he knew from the very start that this person was not really missing. So then, his puzzle to solve became.....? His interest in the place was.....? Right. You kinda had to know the ending, in order to understand what was going on.

Essentially, the reason this film was so terrible was: knowing the ending became a requirement for following the basic plot, and yet, the ending was supposed to be a surprise twist. Hmmmmmmm.....

Tell No One - Best Movie I've Seen In A While - an Escape/Adventure/Surprise, and a Love Story!

"Tell No One" is one of the best movies I've seen in a while. It's pretty rare that you get to watch a murder mystery story that is not predictable, for one thing. The feeling of really wanting to know What happened? Who did it? reminds me of when I was a kid and enjoyed Agatha Christie books. I don't know the last time I got that feeling from a movie! Plus, this was an adventure story, where you're following the hero as he gets himself into one suspenseful situation after another. What will happen with the secret meeting in the park? Can he escape capture? Yet, it's not cliche-driven like so many typical suspense films. There are characters you just have to love and you don't see it coming. For example, the hero, Alex, is a pediatrician. And when he gets in trouble he has to recruit some muscle to come save him. The muscle he recruits is a guy who looks like a tough guy and who has connections to the street, but who is really a sensitive father who once took his son to the pediatrician's office. Yup! That conversation about "I owe this guy a favor"? -- So not typical for it to be followed by "He helped me out when I took my kid to the doctor."

And, of course, what else would I want but a good love story? Also included, free of charge. Just a bonus.

Brideshead Revisited

"Brideshead Revisited." I can only imagine how good the book must be. For a story so filled with longing, the movie could only hint at much of the complexity behind it. The cruelty inflicted on its two main characters -- a brother and a sister -- was mostly felt, and not seen. Their fear, the vulnerability in their eyes, might have been inspired by a man with a dagger hiding behind the curtain, and not a rigidly Catholic, tyrannical mother. Emma Thompson did have her moments.

She blew up the screen when she had the opportunity. Still, some will say it was not enough, that it was difficult to believe the Flyte siblings' upbringing was enough to bring them to such a state of misery. But the movie didn't have time to show everything. It had to give more time to the boy, Sebastian. We had to be interested in him especially, primarily to capture our attention and to begin the narrative - to bring the narrator into his world. We along with the narrator had to be entranced. Ben Whishaw, who is he? I've never seen him before. But he definitely got my attention! He made Sebastian so funny, and pathetic, so lovely, and fragile, so frightened and courageous -- What a performance.

I was told this was a snoozefest. It wasn't. The narrator, much like Nick Carraway in Gatsby, might be called boring I suppose. But he is irrelevant. He's an entry point. The story has something in common with Gatsby, actually. We want like the narrator to have an entry into the magical lives of the more "fortunate." Of course, the price of admission in this case is exposure to their suffering and self-loathing. We have to watch the beautiful princes and princesses fall down, one by one.

But on the way we can dance at dawn in their sculptured gardens, splash around in their sparkling fountains, sample their thousands of enchanted wines, and fall in love.

The story was rich, with characters you wanted to spend more time with, and whose history you would have liked to know more intimately. A perfect movie? No. But it makes you feel things. Desire, shame, and a creeping fear. You know something's horribly wrong, although you can't always say exactly what it is. So, not a perfect movie... A perfect story? Perhaps. It was alluded to. Now I can't wait to read the book.

Shooter

Hopefully when you watch Shooter with Mark Wahlberg, you have clear expectations. You know what kind of movie it is. A movie where a really hot guy performs stunning physical feats and defies the odds to outwit an awful lot of smart people in the government. There's no need for it to make sense or for the plot details to be clear -- right?

Good. Because they're not. I had an interesting experience watching this movie. I watched the first 45 minutes a couple weeks ago. The DVD started to go bad -- it was freezing up on me. I had to return it to Netflix. Then of course wait for another copy. When I finally got around to the second copy, and picked up where I'd left off, I felt like I was watching a different movie. Because the first 45 minutes of this were really good, really promising. An emotionally complex character, a former Marine, whose mistrust of the government conflicts with his profound sense of patriotism. He's recruited to provide detailed descriptions of long-range sniper fire in intriguingly twisted city highrise conditions. It's a beautiful set up and a beautiful premise.

Then, sometime after he goes on the run, or about 50 minutes into the movie, the plot becomes impossibly convoluted. I just watched it, and already I can't remember what they said about Ethiopia, but I think it had something to do with someone having knowledge of a grave there. What this has to do with the senator and his secret agency within the FBI, I don't really know. Did it matter?

No. I had so much fun watching the action. You should see Mark Wahlberg single-handedly defeating an army of 28 men -- under fire and with the grace of a cat. Gorgeous.