Gee, what do you do if your fiancé is murdered just weeks before your scheduled wedding? That’s the dilemma facing Joe, a “nice guy” played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Well, it’s actually a bit more complicated than that.
Joe is living with the dead girl’s parents, a couple named Ben and JoJo Floss. They are played by Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon. Ben and JoJo like having Joe around. He’s a reminder of their beloved daughter. Ben has even made Joe a business partner in his commercial real estate venture. The problem is – what does Joe want? He’s too nice a guy to say what he is really feeling, or for that matter what he really knows for fear it will upset the grieving parents. Because of that, Joe spends most of the movie looking uncomfortable and unhappy. This is why I figured they cast Jake Gyllenhaal in the part. I have never seen an actor who can look more sad and awkward. The guy’s got those big, sorry eyes that work almost too well.
Basically this means Joe literally runs out of many scenes because he can’t handle it. After a while it gets tiring. What is it Joe? Spit it out. He eventually meets a young postal worker with problems of her own who gets him to do just that. Her name is Bertie and she has grief issues too.
This is one of those “bittersweet” movies. The plot revolves around a dead woman, but there are plenty of moments of comic relief. Some work, some don’t. The dead woman’s friends show up to pick through her clothes – that’s pretty funny. The dog pukes on annoying guests at the funeral lunch. Not bad – we probably all wish we could barf on annoying people.
But do we have to have the scene where Ben finally doesn’t have to answer the phone? It’s a running gag because Ben always answers the phone – but now as he has finally come to terms with his daughters death, he simply can let it ring. I’m sorry, that’s too easy and too lazy a scene. You might also find it odd that the parents don’t care what happens to the guy who murdered their daughter – it’s all part of the “getting over” it phase, you see.
In the end, “Moonlight Mile” is a pretty emotional ride with Joe at the controls and avoids most of the manipulative traps. I give it a “7.0” on the scale.
Friday, September 20th, 2002
It was the perfect crime until she refused to be the perfect victim. Great promo line for this movie, right? Do you know what the “perfect crime” is? Well, it is the kidnapping of an eight year-old girl right from her own home. That part has been removed from all the ads because we just had a jury sentence David Westerfield to death. The studio execs are afraid you’ll get a case of the “vapors” and then storm their offices and carry them out nude. How can you be so insensitive? This is the year of child abductions and you make a movie about one?
Hey, didn’t we go through something similar a year ago with the September 11th thing? The movie people really do think they matter that much.
First of all, I would hardly call this the “perfect crime”. Kevin Bacon plays Joe, the head kidnapper. To start with, after the girl is taken by his assistant Marvin, Joe sticks around the house to hang out with the child’s mother. That would be Karen Jennings, played by Charlize Theron. Now how many kidnappers stay and show their face? This is supposed to prevent the family from calling the police. Well, it worked, so I’ll give up on that point. Besides, Joe has the hots for Karen, and is after a bit more than the ransom money, if you know what I mean.
But the real flaw is that the child is asthmatic. If this were the perfect crime, Joe would have researched it better. But beyond all that this is a pretty good “Lifetime For Women” movie.
About the only thing in common this storyline has with the Danielle Van Damm kidnapping is that both kids were taken from the home. Other than that, all I can think of is that both stories have some wife swapping. Okay, I’ll explain. Joe has a wife played by Courtney Love. While Joe is busy torturing and attempting to get in Karen’s pants, wife Courtney has tracked down Karen’s husband Will and they engage in their own set of mind and torture games.
I’ve got to admit, as unlikely as any of this is, it was a worthwhile twist. Great tension and great acting with scenes that you can’t figure out make for a very entertaining movie. If Karen kills Joe, what happens to her daughter? If husband Will snuffs Courtney Love (and wouldn’t we all like to do that?), where does that leave us? Meanwhile, Marvin has the little girl Abbey and she comes up with ideas of her own. By the way, this kid’s name is Dakota Fanning and she is fantastic in the role. There is a scene after the kidnapping where mother and daughter get together and you can feel the pain. It was hell to watch but that’s what movies are supposed to do to you sometimes.
“Trapped” at times feels like an S&M movie and that may bother some of you. But it is ultimately about people fighting back against the sickos and who can argue with that idea? I give it a “7.0”.
Friday, September 13th, 2002
The “City By The Sea” is Long Beach, New York and what a rathole! Thank God it isn’t Long Beach, California. They’ve got enough image problems. The story here revolves around a New York City cop named Vincent LaMarca. That’s the part played by Robert DeNiro. He was once a married man living in Long Beach. The guy’s got a tough life – his father was executed for killing a child and his son is on the run, suspected of committing two murders.
I see a lot of Robert DeNiro on the screen. He used to be one of those guys who only came out for very special roles. Then about ten years ago he turned into Gene Hackman and started making something like five movies a year. I wouldn’t mind that if some of them weren’t so bad. That reduced his image in my eyes. But he redeems himself here with a great performance in a pretty tricky part.
After his father was executed, LaMarca was raised by a cop and went on to start his own family. At some point, things fell apart and he left his wife and son. Patti LuPone plays his ex-wife and there is a terrific scene between them which tells you all you need to know about their past. I can’t recall too many movie moments being able to bring you up to date so fast on a couple’s ugly history with just this one verbal duel.
Vincent’s son Joey, the alleged killer, is played by James Franco. He not only looks like DeNiro, he can act right along side him as well. Joey is a drug addict and a pretty unlucky guy, as you will see when these two murders come along. Franco is a newcomer, but you’ll be seeing more of him as this performance is one of the better ones this year. He’s thin, dirty, slovenly and quite a sad sack, but somehow you still root for him to make it.
But now I save the best for last and that’s the situation between Vincent LaMarca and his girlfriend. Her name is Michelle. She’s played by Frances McDormand. Here’s a forty-something year old lady, content to hang out with this cool, quiet cop. A little companionship, a little sex, it’s all very simple. Then suddenly everything goes wrong for him and she’s compelled to ask why. She knows nothing about Vincent’s father or his son and figures this old tough guy is just having some bad days at work. McDormand’s facial expressions are priceless as she hears just how crazy Vincent’s life is – she didn’t even know he had a son. This was a welcome and genuine funny moment. Yes, funny. You have to see it to know what I mean by that. It gets better when she finds out that Vincent is a grandfather as well. Think about this the next time you really want your partner to tell you everything.
“City By The Sea” is a movie that build slowly and draws you into Vincent’s crazy world. It’s about a guy who would rather not face any of this, finally being forced to come to terms with it all. I got caught up big time. It is based on a true story, but that didn’t matter to me – you can’t get much more out of the actors in this movie. This is how to convince moviegoers that you actually are the people they are watching up on the screen. I give it a “9.0”.
Friday, September 6th, 2002
I think Robin Williams appears in too many movies. This is the second one this year in which he plays an evil guy. Anyone remember “Death To Smoochy”? Well, I didn’t think so. In “One Hour Photo”, Robin plays Sy “the photo guy”. He works behind the photo counter at one of those large discount department stores. Sy is nerdy and weird. You know the type – you probably see these guys everyday. They look like child molesters or they look like they’re capable of shooting up the whole store. The good news this time is that Robin Williams has Sy down to a tee. And that makes for a very interesting movie.
I did have to get over the fact that I was watching Robin Williams. What I mean by that is that I’ve seen the guy for so many years play so many parts, that at first I wasn’t believing this Sy character. It looked like Robin Williams playing a nerdy guy in one of his stand-up acts. I couldn’t take the movie seriously. The voice, the goofy smile- I had seen Robin do all this before. But then the story unfolds and all that is forgotten.
Sy apparently has an unhealthy obsession with one of his regular customers. The Yorkin family has been bringing their pictures to the photo counter for at least seven or eight years. The Yorkins are a family of three – a wife played by Connie Neilson, a husband played by Michael Vartan, and their nine year old son. To Sy, this is the happy family he never had – and he knows them mostly by the pictures he develops in the lab. Until now – as the movie begins, Sy has decided to get closer to these people. Sy is not a molester or sex fiend. He’s just overwhelmed with this family’s good fortune. Of course, things aren’t as they appear. The Yorkin’s do have their problems, but for now, they represent family bliss to Sy the photo guy.
The movie is laid out perfectly. Mrs. Yorkin’s first reaction to Sy’s interest is kind of a quiet bemusement. Mr. Yorkin is clearly creeped out by the guy. This makes sense to me because guys are suspicious of other men who show a maternal manner about them. This is evident in another character in this movie and that’s the store manager played by Gary Cole. He has his eye on Sy right from the start as his instincts tell him there’s something not right about this guy. And that’s a welcome relief because all too often when guys are up to no good it seems everyone in the movie is so clueless and you sit there and keep asking, “how come nobody notices this or that?”
There are several outstanding scenes in this movie including the one in which Sy drives over to the Yorkin house and lets himself inside. It’s a fantasy sequence about people who live lives of quiet desperation wondering what it would be like to take over someone else’s life. In fact, the build up describing Sy’s sad sack life is so good, it’s a bit of a let down when we get to the final climatic scenes. Because this is a movie which must have an ending, Sy eventually has to end up taking it all a few steps further. I’ll just say that it revolves around his finding out that the Yorkins are not living such a perfect family existence and this makes Sy very unhappy.
“One Hour Photo” is a scary glimpse into one very lonely guy’s life – the only thing missing is that he does not live with his mother. I give it an “8.0”.
