The Mighty

ELDEN HENSON, Kieran Culkin and Sharon Stone in "The Mighty."

‘Mighty’ a mighty fine family film

VIDEO VIPER for December 19, 2008

It was a little movie made a decade ago.

You probably missed it.

But “The Mighty” is a mighty good family-oriented film that deals with crime, existing in junior high school, friendship and overcoming tremendous odds.

Kieran Culkin plays Kevin, a smart but sickly youngster who has a curved spine, a back brace and requires crutches to walk.

Elden Henson plays his neighbor, Max who is disabled too, but in an emotional way.

Max is a big, lumbering boy who is picked on because he has spent three years in the seventh grade and looks like he should be in high school (maybe that’s because he should be in high school.)

Kevin is picked on because he is weak and scrawny. Max is picked on because he is big and cumbersome. Neither feels he can fight back.

But something magical happens when they get together Kevin is tutoring Max in reading and emphasizes King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable.

Max puts Kevin on his shoulders and suddenly they become one powerful knight.

Now Kevin can participate in sports on Max’s shoulders. Max becomes more self-assured.

Max is an emotional cripple because as a youngster, he sees his father (a scary, pre-Tony Soprano James Gandolfini) strangle his mother.

Max lives with his grandparents, played by Harry Dean Stanton and Gena Rowlands. They are at a loss as to how to raise such a disturbed boy. To illustrate their relationship, Max refers to his grandfather as “Grim.”

Kevin’s mother is played by Sharon Stone, who looks better than any mother has a right to and is one of the more famous people to come from our area.

The film probably doesn’t break any ground but it is a wonderful, adventurous story that is family worthy.

And when Daddy is released from prison on parole, the suspense really builds.

The film has a realistic feel to it, even with such Hollywood types as Rowlands and Stone appearing in the film. Maybe that’s because it takes place in Cincinnati.

We learn Kevin has something called Morquio’s syndrome. This means his bones stop growing, even though his organs still grow.

As a doctor tells his mother, his heart eventually would get too big for his body.

With King Arthur as their role model, the pair learn they can overcome adversities. When Max is kidnapped by his deranged father, Kevin learns he can do more with his frail body than he even thought possible.

Some of the plot, especially toward the end, is a little too improbable.

Watching this film should be a family event. It can also spark some discussion, since the problems these two outcasts endure are pretty common in junior and senior high school.

Give “The Mighty” a try. It will tug at your heart strings.

THE MIGHTY

• Directed by Peter Chelsom

• Written by Charles Leavitt, based on a novel by Rodman Philbrick

• Running time: 100 minutes

• Rated PG-13 for snippets of violence and peril

• 3 1/2 stars out of 4

The Other Boleyn Girl

Chopped up ‘Boleyn Girl’ worth renting
VIDEO VIPER for Dec. 12, 2008

Columbia Pictures
NATALIE PORTMAN and Scarlett Johansson in "The Other Boleyn Girl."

Every once in awhile, you just need to see a costume drama.

“The Other Boleyn Girl” does rather nicely, mixing sex, high drama and inevitable executions.

If you ever wondered, Britain’s King Henry VIII (Eric Bana) was one chauvinist. No, he’s not like a construction worker wolf-whistling at a girl walking by on the street.

Rather, he puts to death women who don’t produce a healthy son for him. The one woman who does give him a male isn’t married to him, so it doesn’t count.

When the film opens, Henry’s wife at the time produces a dead male child. This gets the courtyard folks’ tongues wagging.

Anne Boleyn’s father has a great idea. Why not get his luscious daughter (Natalie Portman) to start an affair with the king?

You see, being the mistress of the king of England happens to be a nice status symbol, we learn. Nobody looks down on the girl who prostitutes herself for Henry, decked out in fancy garb and a hat that looks like he is playing golf in the 1930s.

Anne and the king are matched during a hunting party. Unfortunately, Henry rides his horse down a ravine and falls.

When he wakes up, it is Anne’s sister, Mary, (Scarlett Johansson) who is caring for him. King falls in lust and is soon having his way with Mary instead.

Anne isn’t too happy about all of this. Anne gets her chance when Mary bores Henry a son. The son isn’t an heir because Mom and Dad aren’t married.

Henry still has um, needs, and with Mary out of commission, Anne figures she can make her move.

Now Anne isn’t dumb. She isn’t just going to jump in the sack like Sis, who ended up without the king and with a baby.

Anne says no bedding until she is queen of England. Now Henry is still married and the pope won’t go along with an annulment. But Henry really, really wants Anne. So he severs ties with the Catholic Church, creates his own church, and chop, chop, off goes wifey’s head and he marries Anne.

If you don’t use this movie as your main reference point for a history paper, you will enjoy it.. It’s rich in purple costumes and bosomy goodness. They may have rented the sets from HBO’s “Rome.”

Anne commits the sin of boring Henry a daughter, who she names Elizabeth. Now who ever heard of a ruler of a country named Elizabeth?

Kingly Henry didn’t realize at the time that the sex of a child is decided by the male partner so he’s not happy with Anne. Anne shutters at his look and with good reason. She, too, isn’t long for this world.

Johannson plays her part a bit too subdued and Bana needed to play his part a bit more menacing.

This has potential as the next “Rocky Horror,” with people wearing 16th-century garb and carrying rubber axes into the theater.

Bed-hopping and busty may be the best way to describe “The Other Boleyn.” It’s worth the rental.

Autumn Spring

Film says something about growing old

VIDEO VIPER with Bob Lebzelter for Dec. 5, 2008

STANISLAV ZINDULKA (left) and Vlastimil Brodsky in "Autumn Spring."

Frantisek and his wife couldn’t be more different in the 2001 film “Autumn Spring.”

Frantisek, played by Vlastimil Brodsky, and his friend Eda, played by Stanislav Zindulka, are in their 70s but stay young by continually pulling pranks.

One of their favorites is to play a rich, retired artist interested in buying a palatial home, preferably with an orchard and maybe a hunting lodge. They even get the would-be seller to kick in for a limo. One plays the rich guy, the other his aide.

They also become ticket police in the subway, checking for tickets from young ladies. When the girls don’t have them, the pair settles for kisses.

The old friends enjoy life and despite their ages, stay young with their pranks. Sure, they might miss a birthday party with their grandchildren, but it’s one of the consequences they learn to live with.

Frantisek’s wife, Emilie, (Stella Zázvorková) is just the opposite. She keeps jars of money around to save for their funerals. She takes her husband for a walk to a cemetery where she shows him a plot they can obtain cheaply because the family that owns it has already died out!

She is practical and thrifty and has spent her life trying to tame her husband.

When their son covets their apartment and tries to get them to move into a retirement center and leave the apartment to him, she thinks it’s a great idea. He gets angry.

He is anything but thrifty. When the people learn Frantisek and his friend were pulling a prank at the mansion, they hand him a bill for costs incurred and threaten legal action.

The pair’s attempts at raising the money result in them losing what they had.

When wife does her regular counting of funeral money, he tells her the money is gone. When he goes to his friend’s house to allow her to cool off, he creates another misstep, he has the friend call and say Frantisek has died.

Wife isn’t so distraught, believing her husband is dead, that she can’t stop at the funeral home, purchase a casket and have it delivered to where he supposedly has died.

The couple learn more about each other in the final minutes of the film than in the rest of lives together.

“Autumn Spring,” or “Babi leto” in its native Czech Republic, is part charming, part whimsical, part tragedy and it reminds us you can still be a rebel in advanced age, even as a grandfather.

AUTUMN SPRING

• Directed by Vladimír Michálek

• Story and screenplay by Jirí Hubac

• Runtime: 95 minutes

• Rated PG -13 for language

• In Czechoslavakian with English subtitles

• 312 stars out of 4

Grace is Gone, Home of the Brave

Two films about Iraq war fall short

Video Viper for Nov. 28, 2008

MGM
Jessica Biel stars in the story of three soldiers who return home to the United States after an unexpectedly gruesome tour of duty in Iraq in "Home of the Brave."

Weinstein Co.
Shelan O'Keefe, John Cusack and Grace Bednarczyk in "Grace is Gone."

It’s just a coincidence that two films I looked at the other day both had to do with the war in Iraq.

“Home of the Brave” and “Grace is Gone” look at different aspects of the toll this war has taken on America.

“Grace is Gone” stars John Cusack as Stanley Phillips, a strong proponent of the military who got ousted from the service because of bad eye sight. He memorized the eye chart to get in.

During his time in the service he met the woman he would later marry and have two daughters with.

Wife ended up with the career in the military. He ended up as a manager in a Home Depot type of store.

When Stanley gets an early-morning visit by military personnel, he knows his wife was killed in Iraq.

Distraught, he puts on a brave face. When his daughters, played by Shelan O’Keefe and Gracie Bednarczyk, awake, the usually overly strict father decides to take them to an amusement park in Florida, rather than tell them the bad news.

You feel sorry for the Cusack character to a point, but you are also disgusted with him. He does everything wrong.

Along the way he stops at his parents’ home, although we never see the parents. We are introduced to the dysfunctional brother instead who does little to advance the plot.

When eldest daughter (O’Keefe) meets an older boy at a motel the family is staying at, the boy offers her a cigarette. She smokes it. When dad finds out, he buys a pack so they can smoke together.

Like I said, Cusack’s character makes all the wrong decisions. When he and daughters should be coping with the death, he’s driving his car through corn fields.

The scene where he tells the girls the truth is beautifully shot. Unfortunately, the basic premise of the AWOL father is so flawed, it’s difficult to relate to the characters in the movie.

The second film, “Home of the Brave,” was directed by Irwin Winkler and starts in Iraq and continues in and around Seattle, as the characters cope with returning to the United States.

Samuel L. Jackson is a doctor, Jessica Biel is a physical education teacher and Brian Presley is an employee of a gun store.

All three are scarred either physically or emotionally or both from an ambush and roadside bombing.

None can relate to anyone except fellow veterans. They learn what their friends and family find important is trivial to them.

Jackson returns to his family but copes by drinking. He can’t communicate with his wife and angry son.

Biel loses a hand in Iraq and tries to carry on, isolating herself from others.

Presley’s employer doesn’t save his job for him and he ends up as a ticket taker at a big movie complex, although not for long. His dad wants him to buck up and be a man.

This can almost be considered a remake of “Best Years of Our Lives,” the epic film released right after World War II, dealing with soldiers adjusting to life back home.

The movie is handled sensitively, but seems to wrap up too nicely. Each of the main characters seems to find himself or herself.

Rapper 50-Cent plays another angry veteran who doesn’t fend so well. Like so many movies, there must be a tragedy so the others find redemption.

GRACE IS GONE

• Directed and written by James C. Strouse

• Rated PG-13 for thematic material, brief strong language and teen smoking

• Runtime: 85 minutes

• 2 stars out of 4

HOME OF THE BRAVE

Video Viper for Nov. 28, 2008

• Directed by Irwin Winkler

• Written by Mark Friedman

• Rated R for violence and language

• Runtime: 106 minutes

• 2 stars out of 4

Under the Same Moon

‘Under Same Moon’ beautiful family story

Video Viper for Nov. 21, 2008

Fox Searchlight
Kate Del Castillo and Adrian Alonso in "Under the Same Moon.

“Under the Same Moon” is a beautiful story of a family torn apart because of the single mother’s desire to make a better home for her son.

Unfortunately, to do that, Rosario (Kate del Castillo) must leave her son Carlitos (Adrian Alonso) in Mexico and illegally cross the border into the United States.

There she does what so many others do, she works as a domestic for snotty, rich white people while others pick tomatoes.

Meanwhile, Carlitos holds a devotion for her mother, even though she left four years ago and he hasn’t seen her since. He is smart, living with his ailing grandmother. He is 9 years old.

Every Sunday morning at 10, he visits a telephone booth in his village to await a call from his mother, who is at another booth in East LA. Apparently, cell phones aren’t in their budgets.

Carlitos pleads for the chance to see his mother, but she is trying to save money to hire an attorney to plead her case for legal status. Meanwhile, she sends $300 monthly back to her mother and son.

During one such Sunday morning, we see a beautiful scene where Rosario describes where she is in the U.S., with a party store, a mural and a Domino’s Pizza shop within eyeshot. Carlito closes his eyes and imagines he is there with her

Carlitos’ fragile life takes a turn for the worse when he tries to awaken his grandmother one morning and discovers she has died.

He sets off to sneak into the U.S. and find his mother, taking the money she sent him.

He pays a young couple struggling with college bills to sneak him over the border. The girl is played by America Ferrera of “Ugly Betty” fame, her boyfriend by Jesse Garcia. When the hot van he is hiding in gets stopped at the border for unpaid parking tickets, Carlitos ends up in an impound lot, hidden under the seat. He escapes, dropping his money, and begins a fascinating journey, working odd jobs, asking for help when necessary, acting wise beyond his years.

He is begrudgingly befriended by another illegal alien, played by Eugenio Derbez, who helps guide him on his way.

Carlitos learns many lessons on his journey, more than a 9-year-old should learn. A substory is about his mother’s decision to marry a legal resident in order to stay in the U.S.

The film is sensitively directed by Patricia Riggen and young Adrian proves up to this monumental part.

This would be a fine film to watch with a child of say 11 or older. The film is pretty-much profanity free and there is little violence, although tension builds. The one thing to remember is the movie is in Spanish, so the child will have to be able to read subtitles, or understand Spanish.

I watched another film the evening I viewed this. It was “National Treasure 2 Book of Secrets.” I can’t remember much about it, but I remember everything about “Under the Same Moon.”

UNDER THE SAME MOON

(Misma luna, La)

• Directed by Patricia Riggen, directed by Ligiah Villabolos

• Rated PG-13 for mature themes

• Runtime: 106 minutes

• 3 1/2 stars out of 4

Lars and the Real Girl

‘Lars’ a story about a guy and his doll

A COUPLE (Paul Schneider, Emily Mortimer) hadn't guessed who is coming to dinner when Ryan Gosling brings home a a doll in "Lars and the Real Girl."

“Lars and the Real Girl” is a tale about a guy and his inflatable girlfriend he got off the Internet.

But if you are looking for a gross-out, adolescent-style sex comedy, this isn't it. In fact, the film is rated PG-13.

Ryan Gosling is the shy, baby brother. He is scared of women. He is scared of much interaction with anyone.

His parents are dead and his older brother and sister-in-law (Paul Schneider and Emily Mortime) occupy the old homestead. Gosling's character, Lars Lindstrom, lives in the converted garage.

The sister-in-law is the sensitive sort, maybe because she is pregnant. She wants Lars to meet a girl, begin a normal relationship. Heck, she even wants him to out of the garage and into the house. But she can't even get him to accept a dinner invitation, until…..

OK, let's digress. Lars works in an office. A fellow employee spends his time scanning the Internet for porn. He comes across a Web site that offers anatomically correct blowup dolls. You create the doll you want, with the look you desire.

Lars orders one who looks a bit like Angelina Jolie. But shy Lars isn't looking for the doll for a sexual relationship. He's actually looking for a more life-fulfilling relationship.

Thanks to family and friends. He gets it.

Lars actually accepts a dinner invitation from sis-in-law and asks to bring his new girlfriend. Sis-in-law Mortime is thrilled, until he meets her.

The look on Schneider and Mortime's faces is priceless when they discover the doll. The Mortime character tries to salvage the evening by going along with her demented brother-in-law. Her husband just thinks baby bro has fallen off the deep end.

Soon the townspeople, who all know each other, take the doll, named Bianca, under their wing, treating it like a human being.

Lars says she is a paraplegic who was a missionary in Brazil.

Bianca is soon getting a makeover. Joining the girls for events. There is actually a struggle. Lars wants her to stay home and play cards with him. Others want her to go out with them. For an inanimate, albeit anatomically correct thing, Bianca is quite the socialite. We even learn she was elected to the school board!

When Lars decides one morning Bianca can't be awoken, an ambulance is called. The doctors, the staff, all go along and treat Bianca like a real person. As Lars' therapist, Patricia Clarkson, says it is up to him to decide Bianca's fate.

The movie is rather sweet, filled with thoughtful, engaging people. But the joke about Bianca not being real does get old after awhile.

Parts of it might remind you of "Weekend at Bernie's," while others Jimmy Stewart's "Harvey." It has an old-fashion feel about.

And indeed Lars makes the final determination about his Bianca and you might get a lump in your throat watching.

Innocence

A NEW girl is introduced to the campus in "Innocence."

‘Innocence’ elusive, symbolic film

WEEKENDER for Nov. 7, 2008
If you are looking for “Innocence,” that is a movie by that title, you will discover a host of diverse films, dating from 1913.
This 2004 film by that name is part “The Prisoner” (the 60s British TV series), “Lord of the Flies” and “The Cider House Rules,” but then again, it is none of these.
This all takes place in a boarding school for young girls, located somewhere, in some time period.
If you like movies where all is explained to you, this probably isn’t for you.
Directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, it stars Zoe Auclair and Laisson Lalieux in a tale of childhood on a school campus with high walls, days of swimming and playing and a concentration on following the rules.
We never see these girls in a classroom.
The film starts with what looks like a coffin. One girl walks into the room wearing a white dress and stands beside the coffin. Another girl, wearing the same type of dress, walks in and stands with her. Then another and another and another.
When they open the coffin, there is a young girl (Auclair), maybe 6, lying there. She opens her eyes and climbs out. While she asks where her younger brother is, she is told she will never see him again. It appears the life process has reversed. The girls are born into the school via a coffin and come alive.
As you can imagine, there is a great deal of symbolism in the film. Water is a big part. It brings life and it takes it away and helps with the girls’ transformations.
The girls all wear ribbons in their hair, the color dictated by their ages. The youngest wear red ribbons, the next group blue and the oldest, around 12, wear purple ones. They live in five big houses.
There are few adults around. Almost like “Peanuts,” it is the children who are the main focus.
One of the adults is Edith, played by Helene de Fougerolles. The school is surrounded by a high wall and Edith is crippled, making you think maybe she was a child there once who tried to escape.
Each year, a chosen older girl walks the long, forested but well light-path to another site each evening and returns home in the morning. When she leaves the school, another girl becomes the chosen one.
Meanwhile, the girls spend a lot of time learning dance routines, which they perform for money in their auditorium to a bunch of unseen men. This, we are told, is how the school is supported.
The film is ominous, sometimes a bit frightening and certainly unsettling, with its hinting of eroticism as the girls grow older. It is said to be based on an 1888 short story.
In some ways, it might be a microcosm of Victorian life. A girl is born, goes through changes as she grows, learns how to be female and is then paraded in front of men until she finds a partner.
See the film and discover your own take on the elusive picture.
Read past Viper columns at videoviper.blogspot.com

INNOCENCE
• Written by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Frank Wedekind (novella)
• Directed by Hadzihalilovic
• Rated R for some sexual content and brief nudity involving a minor.
• Runtime: 122 minutes
• In French with English subtitles as an option
• 2 ½ stars out of 4

Witness for the Prosecution

CHARLES LAUGHTON and Marlene Dietrich in “Witness for the Prosecution

Witness many twists in ‘Prosecution’

From Oct. 31, 2008 WEEKENDER

Noticing “Witness for the Prosecution” was being replayed on Turner Classic Movies recently, I decided after several years to give this 1957 Billy Wilder courtroom drama another look.

First, it boasts great star power. You have Tyrone Power in a different kind of role for him, Marlene Dietrich at her finest, Charles Laughton, just superb as the defense attorney, and a rather irritating Elsa Lanchester, the former “Bride of Frankenstein.”

The plot is simple. Power plays a man who drifts from job to job, although he certainly looks more sophisticated. He sees an older woman, (played by Norma Varden) undecided on whether to buy an elaborate hat.

He sticks his head in the store doorway and suggests it looks wonderful on her. He sees her later at the movies, they strike up a friendship and he visits her on occasion. After one such visit, she is found brutally murdered. He swears he is innocent, got home before the deed took place and his wife, played by Dietrich in classic form, will back him up.

Laughton is made for the part of the venerable defense attorney, just out of the hospital after a heart attack, but longing to enjoy a cigar. But yapping at his heals is Lanchester, playing his nurse, demanding he take it easy, use a chair lift and above all, smokes NO CIGARS.

The Laughton character is intrigued by the whole case, especially after he performs the monocle test on Powers. While questioning the Powers character, Laughton directs his monocle to shine in Powers’ eyes. By his responses, Laughton can determine whether his client is being truthful.

But nothing about this film can be taken as gospel. Is Powers’ character innocent or is he a master of deceit? Dietrich plays the wife who met her husband after the war in Germany. He marries her so she can leave that country. But is she really looking out for her husband? Does she believe him innocent? Heck, are the two even legally married?

The film was based on a stage play written by famous British mystery writer Agatha Christie. It was first made into a movie for British television in 1949, then American TV in 1982.

Laughton and Lanchester were married in real life. Powers, while still youthful looking, would die the next year.

I won’t go further into the plot, so as not to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it. An announcer during closing credits asks you not to reveal the ending to those who haven’t yet visited the theater to see the film.

Even the cast was kept in the dark on how it would end!

But the cast and story are first rate, brought to you by Wilder, who also gave you such other pioneering films as “Sunset Boulevard,” “Some Like it Hot” and “The Apartment.”

If you’ve seen the film, see it again, this time more for the acting than the story line. It works on many levels.

Read more Viper reviews at videoviper.blogspot.com. E-mail Lebzelter at bobleb@starbeacon.com.

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION

Directed by Billy Wilder

Written by Agatha Christie and Larry Marcus

Runtime: 116 minutes

Not rated but suitable for most of the family

3 ½ stars out of 4

Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days

VIDEO VIPER for Oct. 24, 2008

‘Four Months’ difficult film to watch

“Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days” is one of those important but difficult films to watch.

It's sort of like “Hard Candy,” just less gratuitous.

It takes place in the final, repressive days of Communism in Romania in the 1980s.

Gabita ((Laura Vasiliu) is a college student who finds herself pregnant. She wants to end the pregnancy, but abortion is illegal.

So she sets out to have an illegal abortion, with the help of a friend, Otilia (Anamaria Marinca).

The pair, while having limited resources, get together the amount of money they think the abortionist will need. They are told to rent a room in one of two select hotels for three days. Unfortunately, there is no record of their reservation and they resort to a seedier hotel.

The seedier hotel may be a cost-cutting measure for the film. The film may be powerful, but it looks like it was put together on a shoe string. The hotel room looks much like the college dorm rooms.

Vlad Ivanov plays the slimey, matter-of-fact abortionist who describes the details of the procedure in a more thorough manner than I wanted to hear.

What's interesting too is director Cristian Mungiu leaves the camera static on these three people, the pregnant girl, her friend and the abortionist, for eternity.

I didn't get a stopwatch out, but in these days where scenes are sometimes measured in single seconds, this scene seems to go on for 10 or 15 minutes.

Nothing is spared in this film and it isn't easy to watch in many instances.

For example, the Ivanov character acts very calm and deliberate and sensible as he describes the actions. We find the girls haven't brought enough money and despite their begging and pleading, he won't agree to simply do the act and get the rest of the money later. They have already paid for the hotel for three days and can't afford that expense again.

The result is, well, you can guess how the girls must make up the difference.

After starting the procedure, the Ivanov character talks about how the fetus will eventually come out. Don't try to flush it down the toilet, the girls are told. Don't leave it in the trash where dogs can get to it.

Yeah, this is sad, sad stuff.

The friend leaves for awhile to attend a birthday party, but when she returns, the fetus has been aborted and sits on the bathroom floor. The camera shows the girl staring down in shock. My thoughts at the time, don't show the fetus. Don't show the fetus.

But of course, they do.

This film garnered lots of accolades and was nominated for best foreign film. There has been discussion the director is pro-choice. But I can see the film working at both levels.

These girls go through a special kind of hell and at the end of the film, agree never to speak of it again. That would seem to side with safe, legal abortions.

But showing the aborted fetus, talk of how to get rid of it will certainly be ammunition for those who are pro-choice.

If easily disturbed, this isn't for you to see. But sometimes films need to take on important subjects and not flinch when they do it.

Director Christian Mungui certainly accomplishes that. This is one film you won't forget. You may want to, but you won't.

Watching the Detectives

‘Watching the Detectives’ quirky comedy

WEEKENDER for Oct. 18, 2008:

CILLIAN MURPHY and Lucy Lieu in “Watching the Detectives.”

I just love Lucy Liu as the whacky girlfriend in the unconventional romantic comedy, "Watching the Detectives."

And no, after watching the film, I have no idea what the title means.

Cillian Murphy plays Neil, the owner of Gumshoe Video, one ugly video store.

Not sure when this is supposed to take place, but the big, fancy rival store has DVDs. Neil's hole-in-the-wall business seems filled with big, clunky VHS tapes.

There is a couch and TV in the middle of the store so Neil and friends can sit around watching B titles and debate what kind of anime is better.

Into the store comes the lovely, quirky Violet (Liu) who puts a $50 deposit down to rent a film because she doesn't have a driver's license or credit card.

Neil lives the safe life. How he can eke out a living in his store is open to debate, especially with two employees hanging around.

He lives his life through film noir. He loses girlfriends because they don't want to talk about Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal."

Liu's character likes to live create her own excitement. She converted her television into a fish tank.

When Neil arrives at the fancy restaurant for their first date, you would think he could never afford it. Violet has gathered all of the partially-filled wine glasses left on tables and acts drunk, to see if he'll take advantage of the situation and take her home to bed.

She's touched when he simply tries to get her home safe, but at the same time decides he owes her a $50 dinner. At the end of the meal, she pulls a massive adding machine out of her purse and tabulates how much he's spent so far, deciding how much dessert she needs to make up the difference. It's like something out of a Marx Brothers picture.

Later for fun, they go to the big, shiny, well-maintained big-box video store and hide in a closet. When it closes for the night, they spend time changing movies in the DVD jackets. The Disney animated features get the porn.

She is forever setting up dangerous situations for them to get out of and while he knows he should walk away from the relationship, there's something just too appealing about Liu's character.

Directed by Paul Soter, this isn't your normal romantic comedy. It starts out gangbusters, sags a bit in the middle but redeems itself.

Murphy, who had a more famous role as the Scarecrow in "The Dark Knight," does an effective job living life with Liu with his jaw dropped. Liu's Violet is like no other female character I've run into.

It's the kind of character Claudette Colbert or perhaps Katherine Hepburn could have played in the 1930s.

This has "The Clerks" feel to it, but less gross-out.

OK, so it's difficult to describe. It certainly isn't your common romantic comedy plot outline.

It may not be the perfect date film. But then, it will probably give you plenty to talk about later.

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

• Directed by Paul Soter

• Runtime: 90 minutes

• Not rated, but has some bedroom scenes and language

• 3 stars out of 4

“C.R.A.Z.Y., Ma Vie En Rose

Two films deal with sexual identities
GEORGE Du FRESNO (under veil) in “Ma Vie En Rose.”
MARC-ANDRE Grondin in “C.R.A.Z.Y."

From Star Beacon WEEKENDER, Oct. 10, 2008

They might make for a good double feature, which is the way the Viper watched them, but frankly, when they are over, you might find yourself tired of the topic.

In “C.R.A.Z.Y.,” Emile Vallee and later Marc-Andre Grondin play Zac Beaulieu. He and his four brothers grow up in Montreal in the 1950s to 70s.

Zac feels he is gay but tries to suppress his emotions, especially because of his emotionally distant father, played by Michel Cote.

Zac finds himself relating to David Bowie’s glam period. He’s not a fan of the Catholic Church and in one great scene, imagines himself in the sanctuary as he listens to the Rolling Stones “Sympathy for the Devil.”

He imagines the choir, the congregation, the stuffy priest all chanting “hoo hoo” as he ascends Christ-like to the roof of the sanctuary.

But the song reprised through the entire picture is Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” which probably summarizes the characters in this picture.

The eldest brother, Raymond, played by Pierre-Luc Brillant, is a drug addict who has been to prison. But Dad fawns over him despite his destructive ways, while being repelled by next-youngest Zac. The rest of the brothers pretty much are sidelined for most of the picture.

There’s lots of smoking, there’s lots of drugs.

The second film, “Ma Vie En Rose,” opens with 6-year-old Ludovic Fabre, played by Georges Du Fresne, a perceptive youngster who at an early age decides he is a girl in a boy’s body.

He dreams an ‘X’ chromoscone that was supposed to go to him accidentally ended up in the trash.

Ludovic looks like a girl, enjoys female clothing probably more than little girls his age and plans on becoming a girl and marrying the boy next door.

The trouble with Ludovic is he’s just plain annoying. When he goes to a contemporary’s party, he insists on wearing a dress.

At Show-and-Tell, he drags out his favorite dolls he likes to play with. Hey, is this kid cruisin for a bruising or what?

In both films, the adults are horrified and think a little more testosterine-laden activities with father and other boys will set the kids straight. Ludovic gets his page-boy hairstyle sheered. Hey, that’s going to change his attitude.

We see Ludovic vying to play Snow White in the school play while being forced into a rough-and-tumble game of soccer.

That’s what grows so tiring about this film, the reaction of adults.

In “Ma Vie En Rose,” the father ends up losing his job and is forced to move.

I’m not certain what we learn from these films, except maybe that people should speak in French and listen to music in English.

If you see these movies, you might want to divide them into two viewing nights. A Marx Brothers film in between might be a good idea.

Ma Vie En Rose

• Runtime: 88 minutes

• Language: French

• Rated R for strong language

• 2 1/2 stars out of 4

C.R.A.Z.Y.

• Runtime: 127 minutes

• Language: French, filmed in Canada

• Not rated

• 2 stars out of 4

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Television Under the Swastika

Film documents television under the Nazis

BENITO MUSSOLINI'S visit with Adolph Hitler was chronicled in "Television Under the Swastika."

When you think of the early days of television, images of Uncle Miltie Berle and the “U.S. Steel Hour,” Edward R. Murrow and “I Love Lucy” come to mind.

Ah, but there was television better than a decade before that. It was in Nazi Germany.

This fascinating fact makes for a less than fascinating documentary, “Television Under the Swastika.”

The Nazis were early pioneers in the world of broadcast television, dating to March 1935.

Nazi television quality was pretty crude at first, but within a few months the picture quality improved greatly.

The documentary proves less interesting than you would anticipate, probably because there just isn’t that much material surviving.

It’s hard for us to fathom in these days of camcorders and digital video recorders, but archiving programs was technologically difficult back them.

The result is most of the programming went out over the airwaves and was lost forever.

What is left often is films of the making of programs.

It remains a historically interesting find.

Some of the archives are downright funny, including a less-than-eloquent Nazi official who can’t seem to express himself too well, mumbling and stammering.

Another time we see a program about scientists studying the Aryan race. A scientist takes what looks like the old ice-carrying tongs to measure the superior head circumference of a German girl.

There’s live coverage of Adolph Hitler’s visit to Adolf Hitler Square. Since there weren’t multiple cameras available, they simply had a car driving along side Hitler’s. So Germans were treated to footage of Hitler riding down the road in his car, and riding and riding.

Actually, there weren’t too many Germans with television at the time. There were television salons where Germany’s elite sat and watched the single TV in the room. A man stood in the front of the room and was ready to make an adjustment if the picture started jumping.

It wasn’t all propaganda, although we see talking heads discussing the greatness of the Nazi plan called “Strength Through Joy.”

The programs originated at first from a tiny room, but eventually expanded into bigger quarters.

Programming aired three times a week at first, but it didn’t take long for it to expand to seven days.

There was intensive coverage of the 1936 National Socialist Party Convention, including a list of all of the food the members were eating.

We see the 1937 visit from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

There were plays presented on a stage, old-fashioned type vaudeville acts. We see tap dancers, singers, comedy routines.

Another unintenionally funny program was aimed at German women, showing them how to be good wives. How to bring up proper German children. It was supposed to be real, but was definitely staged. A big part of learning to be a good German wife apparently included singing pro-Nazi songs.

This television division attempted to keep itself important and relevant because if it didn’t, the whole thing would close and staffers would be off to the front.

As the war worsened, we see footage of happy German soldiers who have lost their legs still being able to dance, just as good as ever.

Eventually, in 1944 when Germany’s defeat was inevitable, the broadcasts went black. The experiment was over.

History buffs will no doubt enjoy this documentary.

This appeared in the Star Beacon WEEKENDER Oct. 3, 2008.