Friday, January 6, 2012

The Devil Inside [2012]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (O)  Fr. Dennis (0 Stars)

IMDb listing -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1560985/
CNS/USCCB review-
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/movies/12mv001.htm

The Devil Inside (directed and cowritten by William Brant Bell along with Mathew Peterman) is a hard-R movie made in the fake "documentary" style of the Paranormal Activity series only (and perhaps inevitably) adding perennial public fascination with Catholic exorcism to the mix.

To understand the movie's concept, therefore, think of the fake but well crafted Paranormal Activity series mashed with last year's Hollywood produced film The Rite (which starred Anthony Hopkins and was based on a book by the same name about an actual Catholic exorcist).  In this movie therefore, one gets to see well staged and (for effect) grainy "amateur" footage of some really bloody crime scenes and well as really sordid (bones cracking, vomit and menstrual blood covered people and objects flying) but ultimately fake exorcism scenes.  All that was needed was "amateur 3D" which no doubt, will come in 3-4 years ...

This of course works really well for an audience of young people coming to the film to be entertained by being thrilled (in this case being made "really, really scared") -- the same reason that people pay to "bungie jump" or go to "really scary haunted houses" around Halloween-time or go on roller coaster rides at amusement parks.

As I was watching this film and thinking of its fake though thoroughly sordid terror, I thought of the cave men, who "back in the day" (the stone age...) probably got their thrills going into, well... caves ..., to poke hibernating bears to see if they could wake them up and then would "run like heck" out of the caves before the bear took a swipe at them, mauled them, or even ate them.  Entertainment of this kind has probably been with us for a very long, long time...

Beyond the sordidness of the blood (often menstrual blood) and vomit covered contorted bodies splayed about throughout the film, even the more immune Catholic would eventually find offense in the persistent, every 5 minutes or so, criticism of the "official" Catholic Church: that is out of touch, that it wants to "keep these things quiet," "doesn't want to help people" and so forth.

But given that film's the two "rogue" 20-something priests as well as the film's "documentary makers" all come to rather awful ends in this film ... oh dear, I may have "spoiled" the film to some ... the "official Church" may actually come-out looking better than one would have expected.  The two "rogue" if certainly sincere priests clearly didn't have a clue of what they were dealing with ...

As such, there is a place for _respect_ and silence.  And often (certainly not always...) silence is honestly the most prudent and respectful course to take.

What to say to parents?  I don't see any conceivable reason why a teenager would "have to see" this film, and I certainly would not want to be the parent enabling my kids (and/or their friends) to see it.  Finally, the film is definitely not in any way, shape or form for pre-teens (it really is a graphic, sordid hard-R of a film).

But if in the end, if your teen finds a way to see this film on his or her own, you can just smile and tell them "You know of course that the movie's a fake" and walk away.  Teens generally hate fakes ... ;-)

ADDENDUM:

An interesting exercise could be to go see the film Contraband [2012] released a week after this film and compare it to this one.  While not about "demonic possession" per se, Contraband makes the point of just how hard it is for someone to leave a life of crime after one has entered it.  Could this be, in effect, a far more subtle yet far more serious form of "demonic possession" than the head-spinning, vomiting spewing variety in which such possession has over the centuries been portrayed?


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Monday, January 2, 2012

Miss Minoes [2001]

MPAA (PG) Roger Ebert (2 Stars) Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMdb listing -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0279231/
Roger Ebert's review -
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111221/REVIEWS/111219996

Miss Minoes [2001] (directed and cowritten by Vincent Bal along with Tamara and Berny Bos based on the children's novel Annie M.G. Schmidt) is a lovely, award-winning Dutch children's film (dubbed in this version into English) with a definite European sensibility about a cat, Miss Minoes, living in a small Dutch town who finds herself turned into a woman (played by Carice van Houten) one evening.

Why did she turn into a human being?  Well, she drank from a barrel of apparently hazardous chemicals inadvertently dropped from a truck after making a hard turn as it sped through the town one evening.  The same device (accidently dropped or otherwise improperly handled hazardous or radioactive cargo) has been used in countless Japanese and American horror movies to explain the creation of monsters (think of Godzilla [1954] or The Blob [1958]).  In this case, a barrel of hazardous chemicals turns a Dutch cat into a person.

The human Miss Minoes (who we see only after she's found some rather simple/sensible clothes to wear, it's a children's movie after all ;-) is able to speak human language (Dutch in the original, English in this version) but she also retains the ability to communicate with other cats as well as other feline mannerisms: Until she runs into Tibbe (played by Theo Maassen) a hapless local journalist about to lose his job, she continues to feed herself by happily rummaging through garbage cans looking for scraps of food, especially fish; when she sees a dog, she jumps for a tree; and she spends much of her evenings on the village's rooftops.

Indeed, when Tibbe runs into her first, she's stuck in a tree after a dog (now much smaller than she) still reflexively scares her and causes her to scamper to the top of one.  Later in evening when it's raining, she climbs down from what turns out to be Tibbe's apartment's rooftop and enters his room through a left-open window.  When she enters, what does she do?  Well she dashes straight for Tibbe's garbage can in the kitchen looking for food.  What an odd person!

But Miss Minoes finds that she can help Tibbe in something.  Threatened with being fired from work unless he comes up with a good story to print in the newspaper the next day, Tibbe asks Miss Minoes if _by chance_ she knew of something interesting to write about.  Well, who knows a town better than a neighborhood cat, especially a cat who knows and gossips with all the other cats in town? ;-).  So she saves him and they make a deal.  She gets to stay in his place and eat, and she becomes his assistant giving him stories to write about.

Initially, Tibbe doesn't fully understand that Miss Minoes is/was really a cat.  That's left up to the precocious daughter, Bibi (played by Sarah Bannier), of the land lady to figure out.  But Tibbe actually doesn't care.  He's just happy that his fortunes at work soon change, and _everybody_ wonders where the heck he's getting the information that he's getting about what's happening in the town.  Much ensues. 

Among that which ensues is Miss Minoes' managing of a rather complicated situation with the other cats.  A lot of them don't like that "now suddenly she's a human."  Some think that she's become something of a snob, "too good for the other cats."  Others don't understand why she'd want to be a human at all.  After all, as far as they are concerned, it's _cool_ to be a cat.  Why would one want to give that up?  But after she proves that she can still sing the "great cat anthem" (a loud persistent meowing that all the neighborhood cats promptly join in, driving all the neighborhood humans crazy), they come to agree that Miss Minoes "is still a cat" ;-). 

And by the end of the film, it becomes clear that _no one_ should ever want to diss or otherwise mess with the neighborhood cats.  They may act all cute when _they_ want to.  But no person really knows what's going on their heads.  And (of course) the cats like to keep it that way!  The mystery of the truck rolling through town with those hazardous chemicals gets figured out.  And the cats in their cute feline way exact their revenge.

But what now about Miss Minoes?  Will she go back to being a cat or will she stay human now?  Well, rent or see the movie ;-).

ADDENDUM:

At the beginning of my review, I mentioned that I thought that the movie had a definite European sensibility.  As I watched the seemingly innocuous cats decide to come together and ever so cutely but firmly (as if with "paws of iron" .. ;-) take-down the one responsible for the hazardous chemicals passing through the town, I could not help but think of a very cute (and in its time well known) post-WW II Czech silent animated short called "Zpoura Hracek" (The Rising of the Toys).

In that Czech animated short, a Gestapo agent snoops around a humble toy-maker's shop to see if he was doing anything subversive and finds to his chagrin that he walked into the wrong toy shop!  The toys themselves rise to chase him out ;-).  Did the Dutch film-makers in 2001 (or Annie Schmidt the children's book writer) know of this 1946 Czech animated short?  Did the Czech film-makers base their short film on a story already existing before?  I don't know.  But I would imagine that there were plenty of other variations on the theme playing throughout Europe in the decades in between and perhaps even before.


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Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011 Denny Awards - Part 3 - Most Compelling Performances (Female)

Part 3/3 of my Annual "Denny Awards" ;-)
(Other Years' Awards)

Part I - Best Films
Part II - Most Compelling Performances (Male)
Part III - Most Compelling Performances (Female)

CHILD (female)
    Winner:

        Maggie Elizabeth Jones as Rosie in We Bought a Zoo
    Honorable Mentions:
        Khomotso Manyaka as Chanda in Life Above All
        Mélusine Mayance as Sarah in Sarah’s Key
        Elle Fanning as Alice Dainard in Super 8
        Chloe Grace Moretz as Isabelle in Hugo
        Amara Miller as Scottie in The Descendants


TEEN (female)
    Winner:
        Freida Pinto as Miral in Miral
    Honorable Mentions:
        Shailene Woodley as Alex in The Descendants
        Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan in Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn, Pt 1
        Emma Roberts as Sally in The Art of Getting By
        Nikohl Boosheri as Atefah in Circumstance
        Marie Ferét as Narnel in Mozart's Sister 
        Vanessa Hudgens as Lindy in Beastly
        Lily Collins as Karen in Abduction
        Stella Schnabel as Lisa (Miral’s Israeli friend) in Miral
        Analeigh Tipton as Jessica in Crazy, Stupid, Love
        Emma Watson as Hermoine Granger Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2


YOUNG ADULT (female)
    Winner:
        Elizabeth Olsen as Martha, in Martha Marcy May Marlene
    Honorable Mentions:   
        Felicity Jones as Anna in Like Crazy
        Zoe Saldana as Cataleya in Colombiana
        Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre
        Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
        Brit Marhling as Rhoda Williams in Another Earth
        Carey Mulligan as Sissy in Shame
        Taissa Farmiga, young-adult Corrine in Higher Ground
        Bingbing Li as Nina in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
        Sarah Gadon as Emma Jung in A Dangerous Method
        Rashida Jones as Cindy in My Idiot Brother
        Keira Knightly as Sabina Spielrein A Dangerous Method
        Katie O’Grady as Meris Canfield in Rid of Me   
        Charlize Theron as Mavis Gary in Young Adult
        Cameron Diaz as Elizabeth Halsey in Bad Teacher
        Natalie Portman as Emma in No Strings Attached
        Anna Kendrick as Katherine in 50/50


ADULT (female)
    Winner:
        Jessica Chastain as Samantha in Take Shelter
    Honorable Mentions:
        Sarah Paulson as Lucy in Martha Marcy May Marlene
        Kirsten Dunst as Justine in Melancholia
        Dagmara Dominczyk as Annika in Higher Ground
        Jessica Chastain as Mrs. O'Brien in Tree of Life
        Vera Farmiga as Corine in Higher Ground       
        Rachel Weisz as Kathryn Bolkovac in The Whistleblower
        Elizabeth Reaser as Charlotte in The Art of Getting By
        Kristen Scott Thomas as Julia Darmond in Sarah’s Key
        Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn

      
ELDER (female)
    Winner:
        Loretta Divine as Shirley in Madea’s Big Happy Family
    Honorable Mentions:
        Helen Mirren as the elder Rachel Singer in The Debt
        Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in Iron Lady
        Judy Dench as J.Edgar Hoover’s Mother in J.Edgar
        Viola Davis as Abileen Clark in The Help
        Angelica Houston as Diane (mom) in 50/50


HERO / VILLAIN (female)
    Winner:
        Milla Jovovich as Milady de Winter in Three Musketeers
    Honorable Mentions:
        Zoe Saldana as Cataleya in Colombiana
        Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
        Jennifer Lawrence as Raven/Mistique in X-Men: First Class
        Amanda Seyfried as Valerie in Red Riding Hood
        Emma Watson as Hermoine Granger in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
        Amanda Seyfried as Silvia Weis in In Time
        Bryce Dallas Howard as Rachel in 50/50
        Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly Holbrook in The Help
        Tyler Perry as Madea in Madea’s Big Happy Family


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2011 Denny Awards - Part 2 - Most Compelling Performances (Male)

Part 2/3 of my Annual "Denny Awards" ;-)
(Other Years' Awards)

Part I - Best Films
Part II - Most Compelling Performances (Male)
Part III - Most Compelling Performances (Female)

CHILD (male)
    Winner:

        Riley Griffiths, Joel Courtney, Zach Mills and Gabriel Basso as the kids in Super 8
Honorable Mentions:
        David Moreau as Wolfgang in Mozart's Sister
        Dakota Goyo as Max in Real Steel
        Asa Butterfield as Hugo in Hugo
        Karan Brar as Chirag Gupta in Diary of a Wimpy Kid II: Rodrick Rules

TEEN (male)
    Winner:
        Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black in Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn, Pt 1
    Honorable Mentions:        
        Nick Krause as Sid in The Descendants
        Freddie Highmore as George in The Art of Getting By
        Alex Schaffer as Kyle in Win Win
        Alex Pettyfer as Kyle in Beastly
        Taylor Lautner as Nathan in Abduction   
        Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2


YOUNG ADULT (male)
    Winner:
        Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Thor
    Honorable Mentions:
        Dominic Cooper as Latif Yahia / Uday Hussein in The Devil’s Double
        Seth Rogan as Kyle in 50/50
        Juan Cornet as Vicente in The Skin I Live In
        Ryan Gosling as the Driver in Drive
        Hamish Linklater as Jason in The Future
        Patton Oswalt as Matt Freehauf in Young Adult
        Austin Stowell as Kyle Connellan in Dolphin Tale  
        Ryan Gosling as Stephen Myers in Ides of March
        Justin Timberlake as Will Salas in In Time
        Ewan McGregor as Oliver in Beginners
        Ashton Kutcher as Adam in No Strings Attached


ADULT (male/unattached/no kids)
    Winner:
        Leonardo DiCaprio as J.Edgar Hoover in J.Edgar
    Honorable Mentions:
        Tom Hardy as Tommy in Warrior
        Paul Rudd as Ned in My Idiot Brother
        Brendan Gleeson as Sargent Gerry Boyle in The Guard
        Jean Dujardin as George Valentin in The Artist
        Philip Seymour Hoffman as Art Howe in Moneyball
        Paul Giamatti as Tom Duffy in The Ides of March
        Michael Fassbender as Brandon Sullivan in Shame
        Daniel Craig as Jake Lonergan in Cowboys and Aliens
        Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

       
ADULT (male/parent)
    Winner:
        Alexander Siddig as Jamal (Miral's father) in Miral
    Honorable Mentions:
        Michael Shannon as Curtis in Take Shelter
        Damián Bichir as Carlos Galindo in A Better Life
        Alex Kendrick as Adam Mitchell in Courageous
        Clive Owen as Will in Trust
        Paul Giamatti as Mike Flahery in Win Win
        George Clooney as Matt King in The Descendants
        Matt Damon as Matthew Dee in We Bought a Zoo
        Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton in Real Steel
        Steve Carell as Cal in Crazy, Stupid Love


ELDER (male)
    Winner:
        Christopher Plummer as Hal in Beginners
    Honorable Mentions:
        Martin Sheen as Tom in The Way
        Kevin Spacey as Sam Rogers in Margin Call
        Albert Brooks as Bernie Rose in Drive
        Jeremy Irons as John Tuld in Margin Call
        Nick Nolte as Paddy Conlon in Warrior
        Andy Lau as Detective Dee in Detective Dee and the Phantom Flame
        Steve Martin as Stu Preissler in The Big Year
        Robert Forster as Scott Thorson in The Descendants
        Morgan Freeman as Dr. Cameron McCarthy in Dolphin Tale
        Anthony Hopkins as Odin in Thor 


HERO / VILLAIN (male)
    Winner:
        Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto in X-men: First Class
    Honorable Mentions:
        John Hawkes as Patrick in Martha Marcy May Marlene
        Dominic Cooper as Uday Hussein in The Devil’s Double
        Paul Giamatti as Tom Duffy in The Ides of March
        Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Thor
        Albert Brooks as Bernie Rose in Drive
        James McAvoy as Prof. Charles Xavier in X-men: First Class
        Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol  
        Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
        Justin Timberlake as Will Salas in In Time
        Andy Lau as Detective Dee in Detective Dee and the Phantom Flame
        Antonio Banderas as Dr Robert Ledgard in The Skin I Live in
        Sasha Baron Cohen as Station-Inspector in Hugo


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Friday, December 30, 2011

2011 Denny Awards ;-) - Part 1 - Best Films

Ok, this is a bit on the megalomaniacal side.  But having followed the movies for my first full year here and actually having a rather cool name for this ;-), I'm announcing my First Annual "Denny Awards" for Outstanding Achievement in Cinema ;-).

Part 1/3 of my Annual "Denny Awards" ;-)
(Other Years' Awards)

Part I - Best Films
Part II - Most Compelling Performances (Male)
Part III - Most Compelling Performances (Female)

 What do you think? ;-)

BEST FAMILY ORIENTED FILMS
    FOR FAMILIES WITH LITTLE CHILDREN -
       Winner -
            Winnie the Pooh - in a year marked by surprisingly awful (and politicized) children’s films, thankfully there was Winnie the Pooh, whose only agenda was finding a pot of honey with his friends.
        Honorable Mentions -
             Kung Fu Panda 2 - gotta love Mr. Ping, Panda Po's adopted dad ;-)
             Rango - the Hollywood classic Chinatown set among gophers and lizards in a ghost town somewhere outside of Vegas ;-)
             Rio - as every lover of the song Free Bird would know, birds are meant to fly ... ;-)
             Dolphin Tale - who wouldn't love a movie about a bunch of kids who save a dolphin?


FOR FAMILIES WITH PRE-TEEN CHILDREN
        Winner -
             We Bought a Farm - Yes losing a parent can be terrible, but if  you stick together, make new friends, and, yes, have a little faith you can make it
        Honorable Mentions -
             Soul Surfer - Everybody faces some adversity in life, but only we can give-up on our dreams.  Don't.
             Courageous - Yes, it's true that it shouldn't be good enough to be a "good enough" parent.


FOR FAMILIES WITH TEENS -  
        Winner -
             Super 8 - “Yes, your parents were kids once too ;-)”
        Honorable Mentions -
             Real Steel - "What can make your dad so exasperating can also be what makes him fun.
             A Better Life - Honestly, look at what your parents have often sacrificed for you.
             Trust - A serious movie about teenage girl who meets a sexual predator online and her parents, especially her father, having to have to deal with this as well.


BEST INTERGENERATIONAL FILMS (for Older/Adult Children and their Parents) - 
         Winner -
             The Debt  – “Kids, things were a bit more complicated than what we once told you...”
         Honorable Mentions -
             Beginners – “Yes your parents can be more complex than you thought...”
             Madea’s Big Happy Family – “When your ma’ (or pa’) really wants to talk to you, put aside your anger/baggage, ‘cause it’s probably important ...”
             Warrior - "Yes, your life could have been very hard but can you still open yourself up to reconciliation...?"
             The Way – “Even after death, it's possible to make peace and reconcile ...”
             The Descendants – “Parents, if your teenager starts flipping out, there’s probably a reason... and you might not want to hear it”


BEST TEEN ORIENTED FILM (for boys) - 
         Winner - 
               Thor - “To have a friend like Thor ...”
         Honorable Mentions -
                X-men: First Class - "Okay, it wasn't exactly how it happened, but what a cool movie.  And how would you use your super powers if you had them?"
               Transformers 3 - Okay, it seems like stupid movie about a kind of toy.  But why does it work?


BEST TEEN ORIENTED FILM (for girls) -
          Winner -
               Twilight, Breaking Dawn, Part I – Yes, I’m pandering somewhat, but I’ve been surprised by the Twilight series.  It's much better than I thought.
           Honorable Mentions -
               Monte Carlo – “Dare to Dream...”
               Snow Flower and the Secret Fan – truly “Best Friends Forever...”


BEST FILM THAT WILL HELP YOU WITH YOUR SCHOOL WORK - 
         Winner - 
               Midnight in Paris – “Ah, to live in another time ...” ;-)
         Honorable Mentions -
               Jane Eyre - You can never go wrong in English Lit by doing a report on Jane Eyre.
               Three Musketeers – Cool new take on this classic adventure story.  But be careful here, there were no airships in the original... ;-)
               Detective Dee and the Phantom Flame - Great adventure story set during the Tang Dynasty in China.  Again, the fire beatles probably weren’t real ;-)


BEST FILM THAT ASKS THE BIG QUESTIONS -
           Winner - 
                 Melancholia – “What if we’ll just (more or less randomly) die and no one will remember us?”
            Honorable Mentions - 
                  Tree of Life – God’s modern-day response to modern-day Job's asking “Where are you God?”
                  Another Earth – Very creative ultra-cutting-edge metaphysical response to the question "What if I could have another chance?" The response: "Maybe there's a whole other universe out there where you/'you' have one." ;-)

   
BEST OPENLY RELIGIOUS FILM - 
            Winner -
                  There be Dragons – “You thought you knew all that there was to know about a real-life Saint...”
            Honorable Mention -
                  Of Gods and Men – Actually a film from 2010 but one which only played widely in the United States after the New Year.  Possibly the single best film presentation ever made of the rhythms of daily life in a contemporary but also traditonalist Catholic religious community.


BEST (YOUNG ADULT) RELATIONSHIP FILM - 
               Winner -  
                    Something Borrowed - For the really important things in life, you really do have to stand up and "Raise your Hand."
               Honorable Mentions -
                     The Future – “Yes, what you do does have consequences and what comes next can be scary ...”     
                     One Day – “Yes, what you do (and do not do) does have consequences ...”                    
                     Like Crazy – “In the age of the Internet what’s the deal with borders anyway?”
                     Crazy, Stupid, Love – Yup, people often do dumb things when they’re in love.
                     50/50 - Cancer sucks period, but boy does it suck when you’re 25.  Thought the film was a bit hard on the former girlfriend, however. 
                     Rid of Me - Yes, your former SO (or even spouse) can really mess you up.  But there is life after the break-up. 


BEST FILM FOR FILM LOVERS - 
              Winner - 
                   The Artist - hands down.  What a great tribute to the silent screen era!
              Honorable Mentions -
                    Melancholia – Yes, director Lars Von Trier called himself a Nazi and apparently had been blown-off by a Jewish girlfriend in his romantic past, but he still made one heck of a film!
                    Midnight in Paris – Yes, Woody Allen has had his own personal baggage, but boy can he still put together a story and then put it on film.
                   The Skin I Live In – Frankenstein lives, and who would have guessed ... in a castle outside of today's Toledo, Spain!
                   Rango - the Hollywood Classic Chinatown set among gophers and lizards in a ghost town somewhere outside of Vegas ;-)
                   Drive – Coolest genre film of the year, period.
                   Hugo – Martin Scorcese spends $170 million to prove that aside from a few cool novelty shots, there’s really no reason why 3D makes either artistic or economic sense.  But tell that to the TV makers who like Sony own entire Hollywood studios and are going to force us all to eventually buy 3D TVs.
                  The Cave of Forgotten Dreams – The only truly must-see 3D film ever made and then only 5 minutes of it.  Director Herzog is right.  We don’t even use our 3D seeing faculty unless we have to.  That’s why 3D films are so _tiring_ to watch.  But that apparently makes no difference to the world’s television makers.


BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM - 
              Winner -
                   Life in a Day - What a rich/wonderful world we live in today ...
              Honorable Mentions -
                   Page One - ... but the Internet will probably cull even the biggest/best newspapers in the business
                   One Lucky Elephant - How does one plan for a circus elephant's retirement and is it fair to the elephant?
                   Jesse / Shadows of the Lynching Tree - ... but can we finally care about all people too?
                   Cave of Forgotten Dreams - great documentary and possibly the best use of 3D ever to tell a story about a cave with 30,000+ year old prehistoric artwork that otherwise almost none of us would ever really see.


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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

War Horse [2011]

MPAA (PG-13) CNS/USCCB (A-III) Roger Ebert (3 1/2 Stars) Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568911/
CNS/USCCB review -
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/movies/11mv157.htm
Roger Ebert's review -
http://www.rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111221/REVIEWS/111229995

As I was watching War Horse (directed by Steven Spielberg, screenplay by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis based on the 1982 children's novel made also into an award winning play by Michael Morpurgo) it became increasingly clear to me why Steven Spielberg would have been interested in making this film.  All kinds of themes present in previous Spielberg films are present here (1) concern that E.T. [1982], Private Ryan [1998], even the Jewish captives on Schindler's List [1993] make it home safely, (2) depictions of complex heroes with their own stories who come to decide to risk their lives to help them reach safety, (3) the horror of war/terror (Schindler's List [1993], Saving Private Ryan [1998], Band of Brothers [2001]) and finally (4) war's moral ambiguity Saving Private Ryan [1998], Munich [2005]).

I write this because War Horse is not merely about a horse, even though the horse himself is important.  However, War Horse is at least as much about the various human caretakers that this poor suffering horse had over the years who helped him survive the all but unsurvivable, the cataclysm of World War I where people themselves (never mind the animals) were being gunned-down and gassed like roaches on a monstrous mechanized industrial scale.

In the midst of this slaughter, Joey the horse, passes from one temporary owner / caretaker to another and yes, makes it -- beaten, bruised but survives.  And through the sufferings of this poor horse the whole horror of that awful war is expressed.  Much of course happens as this horse passes from the care of Albert Narracott (played by Jeremy Irvine) and his parents Ted and Rose (played by Paul Mullan and Emily Watson respectively) to British Cavalry officer Captain Nichols (played by Tom Hiddleston) at the beginning of the war, then to two young German brothers, Gunther and Friedrich (played by David Kross and Nicolas Bro) in the German army after Captain Nichols is presumably killed in a Cavalry charge, then to a young Belgian girl named Emilie (played by Celine Buckens) and her grandfather (played by Niels Arestrup) who find the horse on their property one day, then to Brant (played by Rainer Bock) a German sergeant responsible for horses moving heavy artillery equipment when the German army comes back to requisition him and to finally two soldiers, one British, one German (played by Himmerk Schoenemann) who find the horse one day trapped in barbed-wire in no-man's and come-out of the trenches in order to set him free.

It's a lovely story and often often a very sad one for what happens to both the humans and the animals portrayed in the film during the course of the war.

The last incident when the two soldiers, one British and one German, come out to save the horse is an artistic expression of a phenomenon that occurred repeatedly on all fronts during the whole of World War I.  My grandparents' generation (in my family, my grandfathers and great uncles served in both the Austrian and Russian armies) had many similar stories about kindness shown by common soldiers on both sides of the trenches during the war.  World War I was still a war where most of the common soldiers really didn't see a purpose in the conflict and often just wanted to survive, _not commit mortal sin_ and go home.  Hence the British soldier's comment to the German one reassuring him: "I'm a terrible shot, and I'm absolutely certain that I'll come home having shot over the heads of every single German soldier I've ever seen," was almost certainly a sincere one.  During the first Christmas of war in 1914, French, German and British soldiers sang Christmas carols to each other over the trenches.  None of the common people on any of the sides really wanted that war.

Hence, I thank Steven Spielberg who grew-up certainly hearing many similar stories (as well as then stories of the horrors of the universally much more "bought-into" and hence crueler Second World War) for making this film.  9/11 did a lot to our country.  But I'm certainly of a generation (as I suspect that Steven Spielberg is) who still REALLY wants to "Give Peace a Chance" and remembers that for most people "War, what is it good for? Absolutely Nothing."

Finally, parents should note that the battle depictions in War Horse are at least as intense as those in Saving Private Ryan [1998] or Band of Brothers [2001].  Hence the PG-13 rating is fully appropriate and younger children should probably not be taken along to see this film.


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We Bought a Zoo [2011]

MPAA (PG) CNS/USCCB (A-III) Roger Ebert (2 1/2 Stars) Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB review
Roger Ebert's review
We Bought a Zoo (directed and co-written by Cameron Crowe along with Aline Brosh McKenna based on the book by Benjamin Mee about his experience of actually buying the Dartmoor Zoo in rural England after his wife's death) is a somewhat hokey, certainly formulaic but still very nice family movie about Benjamin Mee (played in the movie by Matt Damon) and his kids, 14 year old Dylan (played by Colin Ford) and truly sweetie-pie 7 year-old Rosie (played by Maggie Elizabeth Jones) who buy a farm (in the movie in rural Southern California) following the death of their wife/mother Catherine Mee (appearing occasionally in dreams and conversations, played by Stephanie Szostak).

Both grieving and starting on such a surprising project as a result offer inevitable challenges, that provide the nuts and bolts material for the project.  Yet, make no mistake about it, the film is about coping the loss of a loved one and struggling to find a future afterwards. "The Zoo" becomes an obvious metaphor not unlike Forrest Gump's "box of chocolates:" In life you don't know what's coming and you meet a lot of "interesting animals" (people) all of which need some care.  And lest there be too much actual equivalence between people and animals, we hear the initially skeptical older brother of Benjamin, Duncan Dee (played by Thomas Haden Church) declare quite sincerely near the end of the film: "You know, I do love the animals, but I really love the people."

And the Dees meet plenty of wonderful if at times eccentric people along the way -- including chief zoo-keeper Kelly Foster (played by Scarlet Johannsen) and her daughter Lilly (played by Elle Fanning), zoo designer Peter MacCready (played by Angus Macfadyen) and even state inspector and chief "villain" in the story Walter Ferris (played by John Michael Higgins).

Again, the plot is often very predicatable but it is also quite respectful of reality.  For instance, everyone probably expects a romance to begin between widower Benjamin Mee and Kelly the zookeeper.  After all, Kelly is both very nice and, well, "looks like Scarlet Johannsen" ;-).  But (if this is spoiler, so be it...) this does not happen, as it probably would not happen in real life.  Instead, it is obvious that the Dees have still a lot grieving to do, and they all make _some_ but still incomplete progress along the way.

As such I have to say that I really liked this movie (and was actually surprised how much I liked it).  It's sad, but it's also happy and it makes for a nice reflection on the life that we're given and which often doesn't necessarily go the the way that we'd like but ... if we step back a bit ... we can hopefully find that we're generally given quite a lot in life and certainly plenty of opportunities to make lots and lots of friends.

Indeed, even with that kind of rudimentary reflection we could perhaps appreciate that we really do have "someone up there" who is looking after all of us ;-).

As a final note to parents: while the subject is clearly about the loss of a loved one, which can be intrinsically hard for young kids to deal with, this film has been made with very, very gently, with a great deal of sensitivity.  So I wouldn't be afraid to take anyone to this movie.  The subject matter may not be something you'd want to take your kids to over the Christmas holidays.  However if you or your friends have lost someone close to you, recently, the film could be useful to you.  And I certainly wouldn't be afraid of taking kids really of any age to this film.  It's really done quite well.

ADDENDA

First, in the Servite Novena of Our Lady of Sorrows, there is a line has long struck me, noting that "throughout her life Mary chose do to what God wanted her to do and not necessarily what she had wanted to do."  Yes, like in the case of the family of this movie, there are occasionally events that happen in our lives that we'd wish didn't happen (times when we don't even have a choice but to respond/accept what happens).  And there are also times in our lives that we do have to make choices between what we'd really like to do and what'd really be for a greater good, for the sake of loved ones, country, community, and yes for God and Church.  (One thinks here of Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life [1946]).  Often what makes us truly Great are the times when we make the choice to do what is truly Good ...

Second, an image that has stuck with me for years since my time in the Seminary where we did study pastoral care for the dying and grieving has been understanding our lives as a web of relationships (and this before the internet became so much a part of our lives;-).

The loss of a loved one makes a tear in this web.  The size and scope of the tear depend both on the role that the loved one had in our lives prior to his/her death and then the circumstances of the death.  The sudden, violent death of a loved one is often the hardest for survivors to overcome.  Yet eventually our web does mend.  The web will show a scar as a result of the loss and the size of the scar will again depend on the importance of that loved one in our lives and the circumstances of his/her death.  But our lives will eventually continue anew.

The above insight is not my own.  It comes from a book that I read during my time in the seminary, but I no longer remember the name of the book...  But I do think that many who've experienced the untimely death of a loved one (as indeed, my family had.  I lost my mother when I was 22 and I'm approaching my mother's age when she died) will appreciate the value of the "web", "tear" "mending" "with a scar remaining" imagery in the metaphor.

And the family in this movie was clearly trying to find a way to "mend" the tear caused by the loss of their wife/mother.


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